Chapter 914 Post-War Inventory
It has been more than a year since Shibazhi was driven to Miyako Island. Naturally, he can no longer obtain various supplies as conveniently as he used to in the Fujian Strait. There are not many pigs, cattle and sheep on the island. Even Zheng Zhilong himself usually I don't want to kill them to eat, but I keep them for emergencies. However, Shibazhi had already decided to surrender to the Haihan people the next day. These supplies would only be left to the Haihan people in vain. It would be better for him to eat well before leaving. When I become a prisoner of war of the Haihan people tomorrow, I don’t know when I will be able to eat meat.
What makes the pirates a bit regretful is that they were too hasty when they withdrew from Penghu and Taiwan, and they were not able to transport much wine. The wine they brought here has been consumed long ago. Now they only have slightly sour rice wine and rice wine for the meal. Topping up with fruit wine is not enough.
During the dinner, someone quietly came to Zheng Zhilong and reported to him that a small leader had left the camp with a group of people and was missing. Zheng Zhilong didn't have much reaction after learning about it. He just said calmly to let them go, without any intention of pursuing them.
Zheng Zhilong made the decision to surrender to the Haihan people. Not everyone in Shibazhi was willing to accept this decision. There were still many people who wanted to fight Haihan to the end. However, most people chose to surrender to save their lives. Under such circumstances, even if a handful of militants jump out, it will not help. Choosing to leave on the eve of surrender was their only way to express their attitude at the last moment. Even if the Eighteen Zhi led by Zheng Zhilong surrendered, they would still not admit defeat.
But Zheng Zhilong knew that this kind of struggle was in vain. He went to the Haihan Camp to negotiate with Wang Tom in the morning, and for the first time he saw the true appearance of the Haihan Civilian Army at close range. In the past, Zheng Zhilong believed that the main reason for Shibazhi's repeated defeats at the hands of the Haihan militia, which was inferior to his own in strength, was that the performance gap between the weapons and equipment between the two sides was too large. However, after visiting the Haihan Army Camp and the daily training of the Haihan Army, Zheng Zhilong , but found that he was really wrong in the past. The military appearance and discipline of this Haihan militia were far beyond comparison with the armed forces he had encountered in the past. Whether it was the Ming Dynasty or the Western Fangui, the condition of their armed forces was far inferior to that of this self-proclaimed militia. Haihan armed. In comparison, the Haihan militia was more like a professional army, while the Ming army was like an amateur civilian militia.
Zheng Zhilong has led troops for many years, so he naturally knows how difficult it is to train such a high level of military appearance and discipline. He has personally experienced more than once how an army with these qualities will perform on the battlefield. Moreover, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the Haihan people lined up dozens of large and small artillery pieces at the entrance of the camp. This formation alone had already made Zheng Zhilong feel cold before the negotiation. Such a well-trained and experienced professional army, coupled with powerful weapons and equipment, is indeed not something that today's Shibazhi can compete with.
Under this situation, Zheng Zhilong will only regard those die-hards who hope to rely on small groups of armed forces to continue to resist Haihan as seeking death. Everyone has their own destiny, and if he can save most people from Haihan, he has already done his best to benevolent and righteous. Since these people are bent on death, Zheng Zhilong no longer wants to bother to save them. When the time comes, the Haihan militia will take action to teach them how to behave.
The next day, the Eighteen Shiba Yu Party, which had been compressed to the south of Miyako Island, under the organization of various leaders, left their strongholds to gather together, and then headed for the planned surrender site. Although many people in Shibazhi had been captured and killed after the battle in the previous few days, the number of people who organized and surrendered collectively this time still exceeded 3,000. Of course, these people are not all combatants, most of them are just women, children and the elderly. At least half of the truly combat-effective components of Shibazhi were left in the Fujian Strait during last year's battle and failed to evacuate to Miyako Island. Even if Zheng Zhilong doesn't surrender, his remaining strength won't be able to withstand Haihan for too long.
The place of surrender was in a large open field on the southern plain of the island. After harvesting a season of rice this summer, this area has been left empty for cultivation, covering an area of four to five hundred acres. The Haihan Army sent some armed personnel to deploy here yesterday, and today they added several artillery pieces, and they are all placed in very conspicuous places to ensure that anyone who comes here to surrender can see their presence and avoid Some people want to do something small when things get tough.
The First Battalion of the Haihan Militia has participated in many overseas combats and large-scale operations, and has rich operational experience in handling large numbers of prisoners of war during the war. Before this, it had prepared various chains, ropes, cable ties and other tools , and pre-divided the functions of different areas. After the people from Shibazhi arrived here, they were first divided into the young and the strong, the old, the weak, women and children, and allowed them to enter the designated range to wait for the next step.
The two areas are separated by two roadblocks and barbed wire, several feet apart. The reason for this was that there were not enough female soldiers in the Haihan Army to search the surrendered women and children one by one. In order to prevent Shibazhi from using women and children to carry weapons into the prisoner-of-war camp, they were separated from the area where young and strong prisoners were temporarily detained. Isolate it and work on it later. This arrangement also allows the captives to see the status of their family members in real time, preventing them from having some excessive reactions because they are worried about their family's personal safety.
Haihan's way of dealing with young and strong prisoners was not so friendly. Everyone had to line up to be searched first, and then entered the waiting area, where there was another team of soldiers responsible for chain shackles on the prisoners, and every ten people were strung together. team to limit their mobility. The small bosses and leaders at all levels are detained separately, and a dedicated person escorts them to the next location. These young and strong prisoners will be loaded onto ships later and then transported to different places of imprisonment thousands of miles away. The old, weak, women and children will be separated and sent to various overseas colonies in Haihan for resettlement after their identities are identified.
Although the identities of people like Shibazhi are not very clean, most of them are Han Chinese. For Haihan's overseas colonies, especially in Nanyang, these people still have a certain value, at least more than those from Nanyang and even more. Slaves shipped from the distant Middle East and Black Africa were much easier to use and were more in line with the Executive Committee's vision of establishing a colony with Han as the main body. However, because these people have special backgrounds, if they want to change their status and join the naturalized register in the future, the examination time may be longer and the assessment conditions will be more stringent. Perhaps some of them will not obtain Haihan nationality in their lifetime. Chance.
Because of their special status, Zheng Zhilong and his son were not processed together with the others. Instead, they were taken alone to a large tent not far away to meet Wang Tom. The father and son walked into the tent slowly, one after the other, and then knelt down on the ground in front of Tom Wang to show their submission.
"Get up and talk." Wang Tom didn't intend to embarrass the father and son. Although Haihan and Shibazhi were hostile, Zheng Zhilong had been one of Haihan's top targets for a long time, but this relationship It has become a thing of the past. After Shibazhi chose to surrender, Zheng Zhilong is now just a prisoner.
Compared to Zheng Zhilong, whom he had met yesterday, Wang Tom was more interested in the child Zheng Fusong following him. Wang Tom has learned a lot from Ning Qi about this man's various achievements in history and the evaluation of later generations. His status as a "national hero" alone is enough to make people treat him differently.
"Take a seat." Perhaps out of concern for Zheng Fusong, Wang Tom generously brought two chairs up to them and asked them to sit and answer.
"Is this your son Zheng Fusong?" Wang Tom asked, staring at the little guy. He noticed that the child's eyes did not avoid him, and he probably didn't realize his identity at all. "It's Quanzi. I hope General Wang will take more care of him in the future." Zheng Zhilong responded quickly: "I still have something to present. I hope the General can take a look at it."
After Zheng Zhilong finished speaking, he took out an envelope from his arms and presented it to the guard next to him with both hands. Wang Tom took it and opened it. Inside was a thick stack of bearer banknotes issued by Haihan Bank. They were all one thousand taels each. Judging from the thickness, there were about a hundred pieces, which was not a small amount.
"What do you mean?" Wang Tom gently shook the envelope in his hand: "bribe me?"
"I don't dare!" Zheng Zhilong responded: "The dog is young and ignorant. I hope General Wang can use this money to hire a few servants to take care of his daily life, hire better teachers to teach him, and study more." Useful.”
"I can't tell you are a loving father." Tom Wang said with a noncommittal smile. In the original history, Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong's father and son turned against each other over whether to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. In the end, Zheng Chenggong, who was unwilling to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, took his troops to Taiwan to establish his own business. Zheng Zhilong, who chose to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, has always been depressed because of the existence of this "rebellious son" , and ended up losing his head because of it. If Zheng Zhilong knew his ending, he would probably have strangled this cheating brat to death.
"This money will be confiscated." Wang Tom handed the envelope to the guard next to him, and then said to Zheng Zhilong: "You don't have to worry about your son suffering in the future. Since we promised to raise him, we will keep our word. , we have our own arrangements for his life and study, and you don’t need to spend any extra money.”
"Fusong, why don't you thank General Wang quickly?" Although Zheng Zhilong was not sure of Wang Tom's intentions, he seemed to have no ill intentions towards his son. The second is who the one hundred thousand taels of silver will be delivered to in the end. As long as it can pave a way for Zheng Fusong to live a good life, then it is considered to be a good use.
Zheng Fusong slipped down from the chair and kowtowed to Tom Wang again. Wang Tom thought that I had made a lot of money today. This national hero actually kowtowed to himself twice. Next time he goes back to Port Victory, he can brag about this experience.
At that moment, Wang Tom ordered people to take the Zheng father and son into custody separately. At this time, Zheng Fusong realized that the father and son were about to say goodbye, and he couldn't help crying. Tom Wang couldn't bear to see it, so he stepped forward and touched Zheng Fusong's head, comforting him: "Don't cry, there will be many opportunities to see your father in the future."
While receiving the prisoners, Haihan also sent troops to begin an inventory of the Hachishiba base camp area in the southern part of Miyako Island. Although Zheng Zhilong promised to hand over Shibazhi's assets to Haihan, Wang Tom would not really believe that he was so honest. Besides, even if Zheng Zhilong didn't cause trouble, so many of his subordinates might not do what he said. Hand over all your money.
In addition, some armed personnel who are unwilling to surrender and are still hiding on the island also need to be divided into troops to hunt and suppress them. Although these people are unlikely to affect the current direction of the war, not getting rid of them all is a hidden danger after all. The result the Executive Committee wants is for the Eighteen Zhi to be completely destroyed, leaving no chance for the other parties to make a comeback.
As for Miyakojima, Haihan currently has no intention of occupying it as his own. This island has no unique natural resources, and its geographical location is not particularly important. At most, it is built and used as an island colony. However, Haihan has expanded too fast in the past year or so. Currently, there are still a large number of labor gaps in various colonies from Fujian to Zhejiang. There are also many vacancies for grassroots cadres that need to be filled. There is currently no energy to fill them. Open up some new settlements with little strategic significance.
The executive committee's intention was to return it to the Ryukyu Kingdom as a favor. Of course, this return is not completely unconditional, and trade requirements will also be made to the Ryukyu Kingdom at that time. The Ryukyu Kingdom is currently in the second Sho clan dynasty period. During the reign of the seventh generation ruler Sho Ning, it was invaded by the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma domain of Japan and became a vassal state. Every year, 8,000 koku of food was transported to the Satsuma domain. The current ruler of the Ryukyu Kingdom is King Shotoyo who ascended the throne in 1621. However, for an island country with a weak national power like Ryukyu, whether Kaihan returns Miyako Island or not does not actually have much impact.
The follow-up operations on Miyako Island lasted far longer than the war. The Haihan Army with limited strength had to attack Miyako Island, which covers an area of more than 150 square kilometers, and the adjacent Shimoji Island, Irabu Island, Kurima Island, and Ike Island. Cleaning up islands such as Jiandao and Daokami Island is indeed a time-consuming and labor-intensive operation. The prisoners on the island, most of the indigenous people, and a large amount of supplies need to be transported back to Haihan's own place by ship. What will be returned to the Ryukyu Kingdom by then will probably be just a bare island.
The wealth that Haihan seized on Miyako Island was far less than what he gained in Penghu last year. The main reason was that Shibazhi's livelihood became increasingly difficult after he retreated to Miyako Island, and he had to spend a lot of savings to buy various supplies. , the consumption is huge in one year. By the time the Haihan militia invaded the island, Shibazhi had actually reached the end of its strength. Even if it did not encounter foreign enemies, it had already begun to show its decline. It might not die naturally in a short time, but in order to seek resources, it split into It is almost inevitable that multiple small-scale armed groups will fight on their own.
(End of chapter)