Chapter 753: Opening up wasteland for reclamation
From a personal perspective, Sun Zhen is relatively resistant to attacking villages. The reason why he became a refugee and fled to a foreign land was because Kong Youde's rebels rebelled in Shandong and destroyed the village where he used to live. The entire Sun family, except for him, was lost to the rebellion. He had always been deeply abhorred by the rebels' burning, killing, and looting of local areas, let alone turning himself into the executor of such tragic events. But after two months in the Haihan Militia, Sun Zhen also understood what military orders meant. If his superiors really wanted to order an attack on the village, he would not be able to refuse. Of course, if we really want to take action, these new recruits probably won't be able to do it. Compared with these rookies who have not yet performed combat missions, veterans with rich combat experience are naturally more reliable.
However, what Sun Zhen was worried about did not happen in the end. About half an hour later, the village sent two representatives and returned with the soldiers who went to shout. Sun Zhen couldn't help being surprised and asked the company commander Wu Qin: "Why do these people trust our militia so much and dare to follow us like this?"
Wu Qin smiled and said: "We don't eat people, so what do we have to be afraid of? Besides, we have our own methods to deal with these people who came out of the Ming Dynasty."
"What can I do?" Sun Zhen asked curiously.
"In addition to the Haihan Militia, we can also use the name of the Ming Army when necessary." Wu Qin revealed this not-so-secret secret to Sun Zhen without hesitation: "In addition to his duties in the Militia, General Qian also There is also a rank of general given by the Fujian government, and the letter of appointment issued by the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty can act on behalf of the Ming Dynasty at any time. These people have all moved from the Ming Dynasty. When the Ming Dynasty's army arrives, do you think they have the courage to resist? ?”
This was the first time Sun Zhen had heard of such a thing, and he thought that he really did not dare to resist. Thinking back to the time when Kong Youde's rebels plundered the countryside, no Zhuangzi dared to resist their power. It was not until the official notification that they were rebels that local resistance began in Shandong. Ordinary people have an innate fear of the government officials and soldiers. If they act under the banner of the Ming Dynasty officials and soldiers, it will indeed scare many people. Those who want to continue to oppose the Ming Dynasty have probably followed the Shibazhi and evacuated overseas. Those who choose to stay on the island of Taiwan should be honest people who are not willing to go through any more trouble.
But Sun Zhen thought about it and felt something was wrong: "But the military uniforms we wear are completely different from those of the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers! Have these people never seen the officers and soldiers?"
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Yingtianfu and announced the country's name as Ming Dynasty. At that time, the main colors of military uniforms had been decided. "History of the Ming Dynasty·Yufu System" records that because "military warfare is powerful, the color of military uniforms is pure red", that is, red is the main color of military uniforms. However, military uniforms are not limited to red. There are also colors such as purple, green, yellow, white, etc., and the colors of helmets and scarves are even richer. When arranging troops on the battlefield and fighting fiercely, neat colors help the commander distinguish and direct his troops.
The main color of the military uniforms of the Haihan Militia is a stain-resistant iron gray, and it is a short shirt with a double placket. It is very obviously different in appearance and style from the red military uniforms of the Ming Army. As long as you are not blind, you can probably tell at a glance that the Haihan militia is not a genuine Ming army.
Wu Qin smiled and said: "So what if you can tell? As long as they know that this is an army, not pirates and bandits, everyone can communicate in normal ways. Besides, our purpose is not to rob here, as long as we release enough With good intentions, these people should not be stupid enough to go against us.”
Although Sun Zhen was not too convinced after hearing Wu Qin's explanation, since Wu Qin said that he would not rob, he was a little relieved.
At this time, Qian Tiandun was talking to two village representatives. In order to convince them of his identity as "Fujian Ming Army General", Qian Tiandun ordered his personal guards to show them his official seal - which was also shared by Xu Xinsu. It was sent together with the letter of appointment and is absolutely genuine and official.
After seeing it, the two villagers knelt on the ground and said they were offended. They did not dare to question the difference between this army and the Ming army they had seen before. Qian Tiandun asked them to stand up and reply in a pleasant manner, and then began to ask about the local situation: "Where did you immigrate from? How long have you been here? Who organized you to come?"
The older man responded: "Sir, the forty-seven families in Fengrong Village all moved from Ningde, Fujian Province five years ago." As for the last question asked by Qian Tiandun, this man was asking it intentionally or unintentionally. ignored.
Of course Qian Tiandun was not easy to fool, and continued: "When you moved out of Ningde, you must have been forced by others. Now that Fujian's coastal areas are stable, Shibazhi has been driven to far away places. If you If you like, you can also move back to Ningde to settle down.”
Of course Qian Tiandun didn't really want to drive these people back to the mainland, he just wanted to test the attitude of these two people. The two people looked at each other and exchanged glances, and the older one still responded: "Although we were forced to come here by Shiba Zhi, now we have settled down here and have roots here. If we move back, we will have no roots." Ping, it’s hard to get a foothold, please forgive me!”
It was within Qian Tiandun's expectation that these two people would answer like this. If they were still willing to leave, they would have followed Shibazhi probably a few months ago. The reason why they stay here is naturally because there are some things that they can't let go of, such as the villages they built here, the fields they cultivated here, and the free life without the oppression of the government. If they go back to their hometown in the mainland, they will have neither land nor real estate, that is, they will have nothing. They are likely to be dependent on others, and of course they are unwilling to make such an unwise choice.
Qian Tiandun didn't criticize, and instead asked about the local population distribution and land reclamation status. Compared with the details of these people, what Qian Tiandun is really concerned about is the progress of these early immigrants in local settlement. By understanding the local reclamation situation of the pioneers, Qian Tiandun can roughly infer the difficulties that Haihan will encounter after immigrating to the local area in the future and the degree of development that can be achieved in the short term, thus allowing relevant departments to formulate more scientific and effective policies. Immigration plan.
These two people didn't dare to hide it, so they began to tell me sentence by sentence about their situation after immigrating to the local area.
Just like other immigrants who moved to Taiwan from the mainland, these immigrants from Fengrong Village also landed in Bengang and were resettled in nearby inland villages. However, because they had no local background, these dozens of families had a difficult life after immigrating. This is because a large number of the old immigrants resettled in Bengang are related to Shiba Zhi, or they are They simply joined Shiba Zhi as pirates. New immigrants like them who were robbed could only survive at the bottom of the pile. Later, Zheng Zhilong wanted to expand the reclamation area near Bengang, so dozens of families signed up and moved north to the south bank of Zhuoshui River. They built villages here and began to cultivate their own land. Of course, although there is no government in this place, the grain and other crops they grow must be handed over to Shibazhi in a certain proportion, and their lives are not comfortable. Especially in the past two years, Shibazhi's situation has become increasingly difficult. In the later period, it was even difficult to buy supplies from the mainland. In desperation, they had no choice but to turn around and squeeze these immigrants on the island of Taiwan. In the end, Shibazhi was expelled from the strait, which was a good thing worth celebrating for the immigrants who stayed here.
According to these two people, their village has currently cultivated about two to three thousand acres of farmland, most of which has been planted with rice and other grains at Shibazhi's request. However, the grain output they reported was much smaller than the general data that Qian Tiandun knew. It is not known whether they were worried that if the output was too high, they would be squeezed by this unknown army, or whether they were worried about the wrong way of growing grain. resulting in low yields.
However, this is not a big problem for Haihan. Anyway, he does not expect to rely entirely on them to supply the food supplies that Haihan needs during his immigration here. When people from the Ministry of Agriculture come over to demarcate the farm boundaries, unify all farming methods and grain types, the output will naturally increase significantly.
As for whether this will encounter strong opposition from local residents, Qian Tiandun is not very worried. There are more than 200,000 people on Hainan Island and millions of acres of farmland, all of which have been annexed by Haihan one after another. Naturally, two to three thousand acres of land are not a problem. If someone wants to go against the general trend, the Haihan militia will naturally tell the bad guys what iron fist **** is.
Although Qian Tiandun is not an agricultural expert, judging from the descriptions of these two people, the types of local crops are indeed very few, and there are no high value-added products. Apart from grain, they are some ordinary fruits and vegetables. Compared with Haihanzhi Farms in the lower regions have extremely low output and profits.
Of course, this is not only caused by the low cultivation level of the people in Fengrong Village. The difference is mainly due to the technological difference in the operation methods between the traditional small-scale farmer economic model and the collective farm reclamation model promoted by Haihan. The labor efficiency of Haihan style of large-area cultivation is much higher, which can reduce the cost of farming per unit area to a level far lower than that of traditional farming methods. As for the promotion and application of agricultural technology, the convenience of the farm model is far better than that of the traditional small farmer model. It can be implemented in large planting areas in a short period of time, without the need to slowly promote it one by one.
People who have never seen the real thing will not understand these principles, but judging from the promotion situation in Hainan Island, most people are still aware of current affairs. When they realize that Haihan’s farming methods are more advanced, the harvest is also better. In order to make money, they will try to accept Haihan's land policy and farming methods, and gradually integrate them into Haihan's agricultural system. The immigrant population on Taiwan Island is already small, and the level of agricultural development is relatively low. If the Haihan model is implemented on Taiwan Island, the resistance will be much smaller than on Hainan Island.
"How do you get along with the local aborigines when you settle here?" After listening to the two people's stories, Qian Tiandun asked another very important question.
If we ignore the foreign devils in the north and south of Taiwan, the only people on the island who may cause trouble to Haihan are the indigenous people. Although these natives are still in the tribal era of slash-and-burn farming and even drinking the blood of Maoru, and cannot fight against the Haihan regular army armed to the teeth, if they want to harass or even attack immigrants, it will be a very troublesome thing to deal with.
The villagers responded: "There are those who are willing to live in peace with us, but there are also those who are warlike. Fengrong Village built a wall to prevent the natives from rushing into the village to plunder food and other items."
"Oh? Are there many people coming to rob your village? Where do they come from?" Qian Tiandun asked with interest.
"They come almost once a month, and each time there are forty or fifty people to a hundred or so people. I heard from natives from other tribes that the tribe that attacked our village was in the mountains and forests dozens of miles away to the east."
"To the east..." Qian Tiandun silently recalled the map in his mind. A few dozen miles east of here, he had already entered the central mountain range of Taiwan Island. According to the information we know, the Gaoshan tribe living in the mountains is far more warlike and violent than the Pingpu tribe living in the plains. Going down the mountain to plunder Han villages every month is probably the same activity as collective hunting for these tribes. These Han immigrants were able to settle here under such conditions, which can be said to be hard-working and courageous.
"As for the tribes that live in peace with you, will they do business with you?" Qian Tiandun continued to ask.
"Yes." The villagers nodded in response: "These people will come to the village with deer skins, medicinal materials and some specialties from the mountains and forests to exchange rice, salt and pig iron with us. If there happens to be nothing they want in the village, They will also go south to trade in the big villages over Bengang.”
This description also basically confirms the statement that the Pingpu people are relatively easy to communicate and get along with. If these indigenous people can be settled through commercial transactions, even a warlike person like Qian Tiandun will not take the initiative to choose to go to war. After all, the natural environment on Taiwan Island is mostly undeveloped dense forests. Even if special operations forces who are good at mountain and jungle operations enter such an area, their combat effectiveness will inevitably be greatly reduced. Moreover, fighting in mountainous and forested areas is a great test for commanders, because once hundreds or thousands of people enter the mountainous forest, it is easy to lose contact and lose command.
Thinking back to when Qian Tiandun led his troops to fight in Annan, he often tried to avoid long-distance marches in mountainous and forested areas or long-term garrisoning in the woods. If the indigenous tribes that habitually attack local Han immigrants are located in deep mountains and old forests, then Qian Tiandun will have to think carefully about how to deal with such a situation. Taking the initiative is undoubtedly a more dangerous choice, but sitting back and waiting seems to be a good plan.
(End of chapter)