Chapter 1123 Position determines point of view
Even though Haihan is now very powerful in the southern coastal areas, he cannot get the officials in Fuzhou and Guangzhou to completely surrender to him. Haihan has no foundation in North China and Northeast China. Wang Tom also knows this very well and has no hope. Being able to take over the entire Dongjiang Town for his own use, what he cares more about is the brand name of Dongjiang Town. The Ming Dynasty needed this overseas force to hold back Hou Jin who was about to move, and Haihan could also use the authority of Dongjiang Town to carry out operations in the Liaodong Sea in a legal manner, and even exercise actual control over the areas he would occupy in the future in the name of Dongjiang Town.
Even if Shen Shikui is loyal to Mingting, given the current difficult situation of Dongjiang Town, it will be difficult for him to refuse the cooperation conditions proposed by Haihan, and there are many young people like Shen Zhixiang who are quick-thinking. With the benefits that Mingting can give Dongjiang Town, With less and less support, these young officers' dependence on and loyalty to the court will gradually diminish. And as they continue to understand Haihan's true strength through contact, their mentality will inevitably change. Coupled with Haihan's extremely good brainwashing methods, it is probably only a matter of time before they win over the young officers in Dongjiang Town.
Qian Tiandun said: "Is that the purpose of bringing that Shen Zhixiang back?"
Wang Tom smiled and shook his head and said: "This is not because I want to bring him back. It is Shen Shikui who appointed him to come to Dengzhou as a representative. It can be seen that he has won Shen Shikui's trust now. According to Xie Li's experience on the island and our Judging from the information available, Shen Zhixiang is likely to be the current third-in-command in Dongjiang Town. Pulling him over will definitely come in handy. "
"Then what do you plan to do with the prisoners of war captured in Lushun?" Sun Changmi asked: "These people should not be able to return to the Ming Dynasty, right?"
"They all know that if they return to the Ming Dynasty, they will be imprisoned immediately and wait for military law. Most of them will be beheaded." Wang Tom said: "Even if we let them go, this group of people actually have no way out. They are here Liaodong fought for Hou Jin and fought against Dongjiang Town. After returning to Liaodong, Hou Jin will continue to exploit them as cannon fodder, and Dongjiang Town will definitely not be able to accommodate them. The world is so big that only we can accommodate these people. He is a member of the Dengzhou Navy. With a little modification and training, he can be arranged to serve in the navy, which is still very useful to us.”
Haihan's way of dealing with prisoners of war in the past was, in principle, to first put them into hard labor camps for a period of labor reform. Of course, for some prisoners with special skills or identities, Haihan will also give them more opportunities to choose to join their own camp. Many of the personnel currently serving in the Haihan Army were once prisoners of war, including senior military officials such as Takahashi Minami and Takemori. Therefore, it is not unprecedented for the military to transform and use prisoners of war, or even directly integrate them into the military establishment.
Judging from the information Haihan came into contact with after arriving in Shandong, both Dengzhou Prefecture and Dongjiang Town have a relatively high evaluation of the former Dengzhou Navy, believing that this force was a maritime force under the jurisdiction of Shandong Dusi. A strong army, and most of this army went to Liaodong after being coerced by the rebels. Now that they were in a delicate situation and unable to return to the Ming Dynasty, Wang Tom naturally had the idea of taking this group of people under his command. The reason for showing mercy to him in Jinzhou Bay a few days ago was actually partly due to this consideration.
If a group of former Ming army soldiers who are familiar with the sea conditions of the Jiaodong Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula join, Haihan's actions in this area will definitely save a lot of wasted effort, which will also play a great role in completing the mission of marching into Liaodong in the future. Helping effect.
"Then let's put these people forward first and arrange labor tasks individually!" Sun Changmidang made the decision in accordance with Wang Tom's wishes. At present, he is responsible for the deployment and supervision of the construction sites on the island. After these prisoners arrived at the port, they were originally supposed to be directly assigned to the hard labor camp and work together with the Wanjiajun prisoners captured some time ago. However, since the military intends If you want to select and activate some people, you cannot exploit these people as slaves.
"Well, it might as well be done to Shen Zhixiang, so that he can understand our attitude from the side first." Wang Tom agreed with Sun Changmi's suggestion. Haihan's attitude towards these prisoners of war was more relaxed, and Shen Zhixiang should also be touched.
Sun Changmi immediately called his men in and gave him these instructions to deal with the arrangements for the prisoners of war.
Wang Tom waited for him to finish explaining the work before continuing: "After we contacted the Phi Island garrison, we have initially reached an agreement on the immigration issue. We will organize shipping ships to move the people out of Phi Island, and at the same time, we will divide the immigrants into colonization. In the name of the island, some food supplies will be provided to Pi Island in advance so that the soldiers and civilians on the island will not starve to death. However, the scale of immigration from Pi Island will probably depend on the progress of our infrastructure construction."
"Approximately how many refugees are there on Phi Island?" Hao Wanqing, who had just returned from outside, walked to the door of the conference room and heard Tom Wang's introduction. He asked with great concern when he stepped into the conference room.
"I conservatively estimate that there are at least 35,000 Liaodong refugees on the island." Wang Tom paused and added: "It should be much more immigrants than we can recruit in Fushan County."
After the war in Fushan County, there are only about 10,000 local people left, and among them, only a few are willing to leave their homeland to find another way out. Currently, Haihan's immigration recruitment activities in Fushan County have been going on for more than half a month, and the recruitment numbers are increasing. The gradual downward trend shows that the local people's flight mentality has begun to settle down, and leaving their hometown is no longer the only option for survival. Haihan defeated the Wanjiajun who was dominating in Fushan County. This measure also promoted the psychological changes of the local people to a certain extent. Now that there are no external threats, many people want to return to their previous lives. state.
Of course, Haihan's immigration measures will not be limited to Fushan County. As the scope of activities expands, the area for recruiting immigrants will also expand outward. Therefore, the immigrant camp on Zhifu Island has been continuously expanding. According to the command's plan, at least before the arrival of this winter, it is guaranteed that the Zhifu Island camp can provide overwintering living conditions for at least 5,000 immigrants. However, judging from the current situation, this goal may be set on the low side. If Liaodong refugees really start to be introduced from Pi Island, the population growth rate on Zhifu Island may be much faster than it is now. For living facilities and sanitation, Conditions and food supply requirements will also increase.
"More than 30,000 people... we need to plan carefully!" After Sun Changmi sighed, he and Hao Wanqing looked at each other and both showed a wry smile. They were responsible for most of the resettlement work on the island. Suddenly I heard that tens of thousands of immigrants were waiting to be transported back from the other side of the Yellow Sea. While I was excited, I couldn't help but worry about the various urgent problems that would arise.
There is a sea between Pi Island and Zhifu Island. To transport so many people back, the amount of transportation capacity required is not a small amount. However, this sea is both an obstacle and a buffer. Haihan can regulate the speed of transporting immigrants to avoid chaos caused by the influx of immigrants to Zhifu Island in the short term. At the same time, Xie Li was taking Shen Zhixiang and Pan Yan to visit the immigrant camp on the island. The person responsible for guiding the three people was Ge Yong, an officer of the civil affairs department.
"Currently we have built a camp on the island that can accommodate 2,000 immigrants. Every 500 people are divided into one battalion, with five brigades, each with ten squads, and each squad has ten people." Ge. While introducing, Yong raised his hand and pointed to the wooden shacks that had been erected on the roadside: "Each dormitory here is a ten-person room, and each room is a team. The sign hanging outside the room belongs to this team. Number. Every day when going to work, serving meals, and listening to training, the number of people is counted in teams. ”
Shen Zhixiang noticed that the layout of these shacks was uniform, and the foundations were obviously leveled. The drainage ditches, fire isolation belts and centralized heating facilities with chimneys outside the houses were all very complete. It can be seen that Haihan did not do this. It was a spur-of-the-moment idea, but it went through extremely thorough planning and preparation. Judging from the results of the implementation, Haihan's professionalism in the field of immigration also amazed him. He managed the camp in such a detailed way that it was definitely beyond the capabilities of a novice.
Shen Zhixiang asked: "So are these people recruited from the local area? Will they be sent to the south for resettlement later?"
Ge Yong nodded in response: "Currently, most of the immigrants on the island come from areas around Fushan County. The local government cannot give them a way out, but we can. We have a lot of land in the south that needs manpower to cultivate. There are many There are many jobs that need to be filled by the labor force. After they arrive in the south, they can earn their own living and start living again without having to live like beggars. However, before they go to the south to start a new life, they have to work on Zhifu Island for a while. These barracks, The docks and living facilities were also built by them under our command. On the one hand, this prepares them for the subsequent recruitment of immigrants. On the other hand, it also allows them to adapt to our way of life here. The most important thing is to stay here. During this period, you will learn the rules you must abide by.”
"Rules?" Shen Zhixiang was a little sensitive to this word and raised his eyebrows slightly: "Does it mean that after these immigrants go to the south, they will never have the opportunity to return to their hometown?"
"Yes, of course!" Ge Yong knew that the other party might have misunderstood, so he explained to him: "Of course they can come back if they want, but before that, they must also work for us in the south for a period of time. To compensate for the expenses we incurred during the immigration process, in fact, many sailors and crew members in our fleet going north to Shandong are former refugees from Shandong. If General Xiao Shen is interested, he can interview them later. Learn about the living conditions of the people in the north when they come to our Haihan area.”
Ge Yong avoided the important and downplayed the "rules" that immigrants need to learn, without talking about their true nature. Ordinary immigrants do have the freedom to leave Haihan after repaying their immigration fees, but Ge Yong consciously did not mention what proportion of these people would choose to join Haihan nationality after going to the south, and how many would choose to return to Ming to settle down. .
Shen Zhixiang did not comment after hearing this answer. In fact, he had already noticed Haihan's personnel composition. On the way to Zhifu Island on the Haihan battleship, many of the crew members he met did have northern accents, especially the leaders of all levels on the ship, who almost all spoke with a northern accent. Shen Zhixiang didn't know that this accent was Haihan Mandarin, and subconsciously thought that these people were probably born in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, so he deliberately inquired about Haihan's immigration policy.
Pan Yan also interjected at this time and asked: "Brother Ge, are all the food and clothing of the people housed here brought from the south by ship?"
Ge Yong responded: "This is indeed the case at present. Yesterday, the fleet from Zhejiang transported another 400,000 kilograms of grain, more than a thousand pieces of cotton, and a large amount of medicinal materials. Most of these things must be used on the immigrants. But after we have established a foothold, we will organize people to colonize the island and the area near Zhifu Bay, so as to be able to produce and sell food by ourselves and reduce the pressure on supplies.”
Pan Yan's eyes almost bulged out of his head when he heard this. During the year he went to Liaodong, the measurement unit of rice and noodles he usually came into contact with was basically never more than ten kilograms. Sometimes the military rations he received were even calculated in taels. Hou Jin did not want to overfeed the surrendered soldiers and generals, and had always consciously controlled the food reserves in their hands not to exceed half a month, so as to prevent these Han people from rebelling if they were wrong.
Shen Zhixiang was naturally quite shocked. Although he was not hungry when he was on Pi Island, he probably knew how difficult it was to raise food. Whether it is the Ming Dynasty or North Korea, it can be said that it is very rare to be able to give out 100,000 kilograms of grain at a time. Fortunately, there were production areas in Lushun and Changshan Islands in the past, which could more or less replenish food on their own. However, after these two places were lost, the food supply problem on Phi Island has not been effectively solved. If it were not for the military to maintain food on the island, Order, I am afraid that the tragic scene of exchanging children and eating them has already appeared.
If Ge Yongyong was bragging, then just based on the intensity of transporting grain, Haihan's execution ability far exceeded that of the local government of the Ming Dynasty. As far as they knew, at least a place like Dengzhou Prefecture had to raise 400,000 kilograms of relief food in a short period of time. Unless the government troops went directly to the countryside and searched the big landowners and squires door to door, it would be almost impossible. to things. And Haihan's large-scale efforts also fully demonstrated their determination in recruiting immigrants.
"The cost is so huge. If your country moves these refugees to the south for resettlement, can they really get back the money in the future?" Shen Zhixiang couldn't help asking Ge Yong a question that had troubled him for a long time.
(End of chapter)