Chapter 1197 Surrender
During Haihan's journey north in the past two years, small-scale fighting continued, and naturally many people were captured. Many prisoners were held in local hard labor camps in Zhejiang and Shandong, and there were even more hard labor camps on Zhoushan Island. There are several, and prisoners are accommodated according to different levels of danger. Most of them did not commit any serious crimes, but unfortunately became prisoners of war because their camp was hostile to Haihan. Originally, they would be released after a period of labor reform and resettled by Haihan. But now that there is a huge labor shortage in the South, those who have not committed serious crimes and are even sent to hard labor camps just because of their status can be transported in advance to strongholds in the South that are in urgent need of labor for resettlement.
Under this general environment, prisoners in situations like Zhao Sanbiao became the first batch of "lucky ones". The Navy, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Transportation worked together to transport them to the south for resettlement as immigrants. Judging from past experience, after they have settled there for a year and a half, they will gradually realize the importance of nationality to their stable life in the future, and most of them should take the initiative to apply for naturalization.
Of course, there may be some people who are stubborn and will still violate Haihan laws after arriving in the south. Then it will not be as simple as entering a hard labor camp. There are many privately invested and operated tropical cash crop plantations in various strongholds in the South China Sea. The labor force is mainly slaves, and the environment is much worse than that of prisoners pounding stones. The labor intensity is much higher, but the living conditions are poor. Not much worse than livestock. If these people transported to the South commit crimes, most of them will be sold as slaves to farmers, and the end result is probably to die of exhaustion on the plantations.
Although this kind of personnel transfer will slow down the progress of various local construction projects to a certain extent, Wang Tom and Shi Diwen believe that this is not necessarily a bad thing. The identities of most of these prisoners are relatively sensitive. The information they know will hinder Haihan's local rule. They cannot be allowed to return to Zhejiang to live in the first place. It is also a good thing to transport these people away as soon as possible, so that the existing After the hard labor camp is vacated, it can be easily transformed into an immigration camp to accept a steady stream of immigrants from Shandong and Liaodong areas after the beginning of spring.
In addition to nearly 800 local prisoners, the first batch of shipments also included almost the same number of prisoners sent back from the Zhifu Port stronghold in Shandong. Among them were local bandits and bandits, a small number of captured Ming army personnel, and some were refugees collected in Dengzhou and Liaodong Pi Island. After setting off from Zhoushan, this fleet of immigrants will stop at several locations in Penghu, Hong Kong, Sanya, and Cam Ranh Port for rest. The final destination is Vung Tau Port at the junction of Champa and Annam.
However, Vung Tau Port is only one of many strongholds in the South China Sea that are experiencing population shortages, so Wang Tom and Shi Diwen agreed to simply take this opportunity to clear out all the local prisoners with minor crimes as soon as possible to reduce the pressure on public security. , let Zhoushan continue to develop towards a commercial port instead of a prison island. Of the six existing hard labor camps, only one will remain after the personnel clearance, and the others have been converted into immigration camps and storage warehouses to further strengthen the local population reception capacity.
Prisoners who will eventually be left to serve hard labor locally are basically imprisoned for life. It is impossible to change their status to become Haihan nationals, and they have no value in being transported to other places for resettlement as immigrants. The number of these people is not large, so as long as they are detained together, there will be no major problems. As for prisoners like Han Zhengshan, in fact, the only purpose of capturing him and imprisoning him is to seal his mouth. The threat to Haihan is also extremely limited. As long as he leaves Zhejiang, he is just a passerby. Sending him to the distant South China Sea can solve this problem satisfactorily. .
Of course, considering safety and confidentiality issues, the other two people involved in the crime with Han Zhengshan must not be sent to the same place as him, and must be placed separately. In fact, among the first group of people going south, the prostitute Cui'e had already been taken away. It is unlikely that Han Zhengshan and Gu Hui will learn of her whereabouts through official channels in the future. The chance of these three people meeting each other for the rest of their lives is probably very slim.
Han Zhengshan could not have imagined that his fate had been decided by others unknowingly, and his current situation did not allow him to think about the long-term future. Although he learned from Zhao Sanbiao that he might also become one of the immigrants moving south in the future. member, but he will not regard this as his only way out yet. If possible, he still hopes to solve his problem of a way out on Zhoushan Island as soon as possible to avoid being forced to leave his hometown and go elsewhere.
After Zhao Sanbiao and others were sent away, he was quickly moved to the prison cell and lived with a group of Shandong bandits. However, with the previous experience of getting along with Zhao Sanbiao and others, Han Zhengshan did not cause any trouble this time and became familiar with this group of people.
From these people, Han Zhengshan learned that the Haihan Army had gone north to Shandong last year and had established a foothold in Dengzhou. The reaction of the local government was similar to that in Zhejiang. There was no good way to deal with this group of foreign armed forces, and they were unable to expel them. They could only turn a blind eye and ignore their existence. As for civilian armed forces such as bandits and bandits, they are naturally no match for Haihan. These Shandong people who were in the same cell as Han Zhengshan were frightened when they talked about their experience of fighting the Haihan army at that time. They were glad that they were lucky enough to survive on the battlefield. .
As for leaving their hometown and coming to the south after being captured, these Shandong people are very open-minded: "We go into the mountains to become bandits, don't we just do it for food? As long as we can make a living, we can do anything! To be honest, this place is at least today. You don’t have to worry about not having enough to eat tomorrow, you have food and shelter, and you don’t have to risk going out to rob homes. Isn’t this better than staying in the mountains and being a savage?”
Han Zhengshan was speechless at such remarks. He really couldn't understand the mentality of these people, and he couldn't imagine how bad their living environment was in the past. But it is obvious that these people are not disgusted with the current life of prisoners, and are even somewhat content with the status quo. Moreover, this is Zhejiang, not Shandong. Even if they are separated from the current environment, they have no way to survive. They cannot fall into bandits again, so hard labor camps that can provide food and accommodation have become shelters in the eyes of these people. common existence. As long as they work honestly and don't cause trouble, the Haihan people will not impose additional punishment on them. Apart from being as tired as a dog after finishing their work every day, there is nothing to complain about.
Whether they will be assigned further south in the future, these people will not think there is anything wrong. Anyway, they have no chance to return to Shandong, and it will be different wherever they settle. Their requirements for the future are very low, so low that Han Zhengshan can only lament that they are different and do not work together.
This group of Shandong people came to Zhoushan only a few months earlier than Han Zhengshan, but according to the ranking of points, Han Zhengshan was naturally not qualified to compete for the top spot and could only continue to be a member of the masses. However, he is not opposed to this arrangement. In his opinion, it is not a big deal whether he can stand out in this place or not. He was more interested in Haihan's various behaviors in the north. After work every day, he would chat with these Shandong people about the situation they knew.
The more he learned about Haihan, the more frightened he became. Only then did Han Zhengshan gradually realize that this country was not a small country. Its national strength was enough to support their army to fight a real local war thousands of miles away from home. The actions of the Haihan Army in Shandong were much more powerful than the bluff intimidation outside Hangzhou. There were thousands of prisoners of war transported to the south alone, including many local Ming troops - of course, The prisoners of the Ming army were held in a place separated from these bandits to prevent these guys from fighting in the camp. By comparison, Haihan's actions in Zhejiang are already very restrained. If they really want to make a big fuss, there seems to be no way in Zhejiang to effectively stop Haihan's actions. On the twenty-first day after entering the hard labor camp, that is, seven days after Han Zhengshan's last batch of cellmates left, this group of Shandong people were also transferred out of the hard labor camp in the same way. What is different from the previous group of people is that the Shandong people obviously regard this transfer as an opportunity for them to regain a new life. Instead of rejecting this arrangement, they are overjoyed and even pack their luggage with great joy.
The destination of this group of Shandong people, the Ambunas Islands, was also unheard of by Han Zhengshan. It is said that its main island is much larger than Zhoushan Island, and there are thousands of local permanent residents. It is not an undeveloped desert island. After these Shandong people arrive there, they can all share land and housing and enjoy the treatment of new immigrants. For them, it will definitely be much better than living as bandits before and now as prisoners.
Before leaving, the big man from Shandong who was the trumpet took off his sheepskin jacket and left it with Han Zhengshan: "I heard that the place we are going to is extremely hot all year round. I can't wear this sheepskin jacket, so I'll leave it to you." Yeah! But I guess you won’t be able to wear it for long!”
After Han Zhengshan thanked him, he responded with a wry smile: "Yes, spring will start soon, and these clothes won't last a few days."
"What I mean is that you may not be able to wait until the spring, and you will be transported to the south." The Shandong man grinned and said: "Once our group leaves, there will only be a few dozen prisoners left in this camp. The guard said that it will be very difficult." This place will be cleared soon, and we will use this place to receive immigrants from the north. If you have the opportunity to come to Ambona Island, remember to come and drink with us!”
Han Zhengshan didn't know how to answer these words for a moment. Although he resisted being sent to the wild area thousands of miles away in the south as a new immigrant, he also understood that such a fate was not something he could fight against. Perhaps from now on, it is time to consider in advance the way out after going to the south. Otherwise, when you get there, you will fall into great passivity.
If he wanted to obtain information about the South, Han Zhengshan was not without means. In fact, just a few days after he arrived in Zhoushan, there was an officially organized propaganda activity in the hard labor camp, which was to introduce the South China Sea area to the prisoners. Natural environment, living conditions, etc. But at that time, Han Zhengshan had no interest in these irrelevant things. Although Zhao Sanbiao and others in the same cell would go to listen to the lectures, participation in this activity was voluntary, and Han Zhengshan had never been there even once. But now it seems that it may be a wise choice to first understand the local situation from the side.
However, this publicity event only takes place every five or six years. Before Han Zhengshan could attend the next event, the list of the new batch of prisoners who had moved south had been announced, and his name was also on it. Up to this time, Han Zhengshan had not even stayed in the Zhoushan hard labor camp for a full month.
Han Zhengshan boldly went to the prison guard in his camp and asked if he could apply to stay in Zhejiang. The guard's answer was refreshing: "It's not impossible for you to stay, but your case is special. You cannot be released from the hard labor camp within seven years, but if you are willing to go to the south, then the three-month supervision period Once it is over, you can regain your freedom, but you are not allowed to leave the local area. You can apply to become a Haihan citizen after six months. Once you have Haihan nationality, you can even return to Zhejiang.”
Of course, the guards didn't make it too clear. Even if everything went smoothly, it would be at least a year before Han Zhengshan wanted to become a naturalized citizen of Haihan. By then, his mentality would probably be very different from now. Even if he still loves the Ming Dynasty and wants to come back to expose Haihan's "conspiracy", this kind of cross-regional population movement must be approved by relevant departments. He can't go wherever he wants.
As for the seven-year sentence, discipline is actually just a casual mention. After Han Zhengshan entered the camp, he was classified as a person who was going to move to the south, so the judicial department had no intention of sentencing him and just waited for the order of the batch. After arriving, he was transported away. The civil affairs department and the local management committee were responsible for what happened after that, and the judicial department of Zhoushan Island took advantage of the situation to save this trouble.
Han Zhengshan is at the other end of the information asymmetry. How could he have thought of Haihan's plan? However, he has been in Gongmen for many years, and he also knows that the yamen's sentences can be light or serious, and the scope of activities during this period is huge. What this guard said may not be everything. It's a sure thing. It's just that he was penniless when he was caught here, and the other party wouldn't sell him face because of his past identity, so he really had no basis for bargaining with the other party.
Suffering in prison for seven years, or going south to be a free man, this is probably no longer a difficult choice. Han Zhengshan is not sure whether he can survive seven years in the hard labor camp, but regaining freedom through another option is just around the corner. No matter how much he hates Haihan, he still cannot deny his desire for freedom.
(End of chapter)