Chapter 1199 Journey South (2)
The measure of deducting food rations for this group of immigrants with special status is not because the civil affairs department is short of such a small amount of food. The main purpose is to use this method to reduce the chance of causing trouble on the way to help people. These prisoners are too full and have nothing to do, so they will inevitably have random thoughts. Therefore, only a small amount of food is provided during the escort to keep them hungry, making it less likely to cause trouble on the ship. Although this set of measures is not very humane, judging from Haihan's long-term operational experience in transporting people by sea, the overall effect is quite satisfactory.
When Han Zhengshan was a head catcher before, he knew that there would be similar measures in prisons to restrict physically strong prisoners from causing trouble in prison, so he was not particularly surprised by Haihan's operation. He knew that complaining would not help in this case. It was better to lie down and take a nap to reduce physical energy consumption and effectively relieve the body's hunger.
Although the cabin became very crowded with most of the space taken up by cargo, fortunately it was winter now, and it was warmer even though it was so crowded, so everyone did not complain too much and just looked forward to arriving as soon as possible. Next stop, get a short break.
After the fleet sailed out of Shipu Port, it never docked in Zhejiang and sailed south day and night. Three days later, when Han Zhengshan was sleeping in a daze, he heard someone next to him saying that the ship had docked, so he also got up to check. After waiting for a while, the guard on the deck asked everyone to wait in line in the cabin, and then there would be arrangements for them to go ashore for a walk. Everyone cheered after hearing this. They had been on the boat for the past few days after leaving Zhoushan, and their brains had long been turned into a ball of mush. Being able to return to land again was probably more important to them than having a full meal. for urgent needs.
After waiting for about half an hour, the hatch on the top of the cargo hold was finally opened, and Han Zhengshan and others were released. After Han Zhengshan stepped onto the deck, he saw a rather large bay. The size of the dock was no less impressive than the Shipu Port he had visited before. On the high ground in the distance, an exotic stone castle stands, and the crenellations for artillery on the city wall are faintly visible. However, there are not many ships docked at the pier. Apart from the own fleet, most of the boats docked on the shore are small fishing boats and small passenger and cargo sailing boats. In addition, you can clearly feel that the temperature here is higher than that in Zhejiang. It seems that we have entered the southern boundary.
Immediately, someone asked the guard where this place was, and the answer was Jilong Port. Han Zhengshan had no impression of this place name. After the guard explained it in detail, he realized that this place was not the boundary of the Ming Dynasty, but at the northern end of Taiwan Island across the sea from the Ming Dynasty. The nearest Fuzhou Prefecture is 500 miles away by water. remote.
The guard told everyone in a show-off manner that this place was originally the territory of the Folangji people and was taken over by Haihan by force two years ago. The castle on the hillside in the distance was a stronghold built by the Francois in the past, but it is now the seat of the Jilong Port Management Committee and the local armed headquarters.
Although Han Zhengshan still didn't quite understand the geographical location of this port, Haihan did not hesitate to use force to drive away the Fo Langji people and seize control of this place. Obviously, it could not be because he had nothing to do. Do. Presumably this place is either a necessary place on an important waterway, or it has some special local products.
Han Zhengshan's prediction was indeed correct. Haihan initially occupied this place because it was geographically located at the northern end of the Taiwan Strait. It could not only control the waterway from south to north, but also serve as a link between Haihan's control area and Ryukyu and Ryukyu in the northeast. The starting point of waterways in Japan and other countries. On the other hand, the Jinguashi mining area near Jilong Port is the location of the largest gold mine under Haihan rule. It can be regarded as one of the main sources of gold reserves in the Haihan treasury. Its strategic significance is even greater than its geographical location. Even more important.
However, although Han Zhengshan's inference was accurate, he did not know the inside story. It seems that the prosperity here is far less than that of Zhoushan. If he is left to settle down here, his life will probably be more difficult in the future.
Han Zhengshan's worries soon became reality. The guard announced that 20 people would stay here, and the personnel would be allocated immediately after landing. Han Zhengshan couldn't help but feel nervous. If he stayed here, he would be closer to Zhejiang, but this place was like a wilderness. It would be difficult for him to have a good life if he stayed here. He was also feeling a little uneasy and conflicted at the moment.
After landing, several people who looked like stewards came, but they did not select these people one by one. Instead, they directly read the names of twenty people from the roster, and then took the selected people away from the dock. Han Zhengshan was not included in this list, which made him feel relieved and a little regretful at the same time.
But then the guard announced a piece of news that made everyone very happy. Instead of sleeping in a crowded cabin tonight, they would spend the night in a warehouse at the dock. This means that they can say goodbye to the bumpy water environment for a while and have a good sleep.
Of course, such treatment does not come in vain. Before that, they had to act as laborers and unload some of the supplies on the ship to the shore. This job is not particularly onerous in normal times, but these people have been wandering at sea for several days, and now the feeling of their feet on the ground is still light and unreal. In addition, they have never eaten enough, and their physical condition is not very good. Okay, so it’s really not easy to work. Han Zhengshan was out of breath after carrying a fifty-pound bag of rice only twice, and felt like he could no longer stand on his feet.
It took these people more than half an hour to complete the task that usually takes as long as one stick of incense. During this time, they were naturally scolded by the guards to speed up, but their physical condition could no longer keep up. . After finishing the work, most of the people collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. After resting for a while, they reluctantly got up under the urging of the guards and went to the designated warehouse to rest.
To everyone's relief, after all this busy work, they had an extra meal, and the portion was much larger than the one meal a day on the ship in the past few days. Han Zhengshan also felt a strange sense of satisfaction after eating this meal. He suddenly felt that among all the things in life, eating well and sleeping well was the most meaningful thing, and other desires could be put aside for the time being. As for my previous experience as a head catcher in Hangzhou Prefecture, even though it was just over a month ago, thinking about it now, it feels like it was a lifetime ago.
Although they were allowed to go ashore to rest, Han Zhengshan and his group were still strictly restricted in their activities and could not step out of the empty warehouse. According to the explanation given to them by the guards, this Jilong Port belongs to the military control area. Even though they have basically separated themselves from their status as prisoners, they still cannot move freely in this area. Of course, just listen to this reason. As far as Han Zhengshan knows, all Haihan's colonies outside of its homeland are military controlled areas, which means that no matter which port the fleet docks, they will all be there for the same reason. without freedom of movement. But being able to rest for a night on land was a rare privilege after all. Han Zhengshan slept very soundly that night, and even when he woke up in the morning, he had the illusion that he was at home in Hangzhou.
After breakfast at dawn, Han Zhengshan and others were rushed back to the ship to prepare for departure. When they boarded the ship, they saw a group of Haihan soldiers working together to hoist an extremely heavy box onto the troop carrier. There were more than 20 people working together on top and bottom. Han Zhengshan's first reaction was that Hai Hanbing did not find his own group of free coolies to do this work, but then he thought that since there were free coolies lying around, the contents of this box must be very important and should not be touched by outsiders. .
Han Zhengshan expected it to be true. The box contained gold ore excavated from the Jinguashi mining area in the past few months. It had only undergone preliminary smelting and was packed into boxes and shipped to Sanya. It was then refined and smelted by the professional smelting workshop there. , made into standard stock gold bars and sent to the treasury for backup. The value of this box of gold ore is approximately more than 800,000 taels of silver. Naturally, it must be escorted by the army to ensure peace of mind.
After setting off from Jilong Port, the fleet first went northwest around Yangmingshan, then turned southwest and traveled south along the coastline. After two days of sailing, it arrived at its next stop, Magong Port in Penghu.
Compared with the sparsely populated Jilong Port, Penghu is much more lively. It is not only the main trading port of Haihan in the Fujian waters, but also the largest military base of the Haihan Navy in the Fujian Strait. One of the main transshipment ports for northern immigrants heading south. In terms of the number of ships that come and go here every day, it is almost on the same level as Zhoushan Dinghai Port in Zhejiang.
After arriving here, Han Zhengshan and others were taken to the shore. The boat they took before was the turnaround point to Penghu, and they needed to transfer to an immigration boat to complete the rest of the journey. But before that, they had to stay at the immigration transfer camp on Baisha Island for two days, waiting for the relevant authorities to arrange a boat trip.
It was only after Han Zhengshan entered the immigration camp that he truly realized how shocking the scale of Haihan's immigration was. This immigrant camp has a capacity of at least four to five thousand people, and currently about two thousand people live here, waiting for the civil affairs department to assign them their next destination. The sources of immigrants here are also diverse. They include people fleeing war in Liaodong, Shandong and other places, as well as immigrants recruited or employed from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong. There are also a small number of immigrants from North Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, and Annan. Foreigners from , Champa, Siam and other countries were mixed in. The arrival of Han Zhengshan and his dozens of people did not cause any disturbance at all, and they were quickly dispersed and assigned to various camps.
Han Zhengshan didn't know what standards the Haihan people used to resettle so many immigrants into different categories, but he knew that it was unlikely that he would stay here. According to the staff here, the vast majority of people in the immigration camp were Some will be assigned to other places for resettlement, not only transporting immigrants south, but also going north. Han Zhengshan thought of the people he had met in Zhoushan who worked for Haihan, and indeed many of them were from the south. This method of cross-regional resettlement of immigrants from the north to the south was also an eye-opener for Han Zhengshan. If he followed this standard, Han Zhengshan expected that Penghu would not be his destination, and his journey south would continue.
Sure enough, after living in the immigration camp for two days, Han Zhengshan was once again selected into the new batch of immigrants going south, and took an immigration ship to the colony controlled by Haihan in the south. But at this time, he still didn't know where his end would be.
The environmental conditions on the immigration ship were slightly better than those on the mixed passenger and cargo ship on the previous journey. There were fixed three-layer bunks in the cabin, so there was no need to crowd them with bunks on the floor. In addition, the ventilation and lighting conditions are much better. Even if there are hundreds of people in one cabin, they will not be too stuffy to breathe.
The most important point is that the food supply on the immigration ship departing from Penghu has returned to the level of two meals a day. This makes Han Zhengshan, who has been hungry for several days, seem to see a glimmer of hope. Although it was said that both meals were vegetable porridge, Han Zhengshan felt that compared with the days when he could only eat one meal a day, there was nothing to be picky about.
When the fleet set off, Han Zhengshan once again experienced Haihan's strength. In addition to the armed troop carrier that had been escorting all the way, there were six immigration ships heading south this time, carrying more than a thousand immigrants. In addition, there were also There were four cargo ships traveling with us. It is said that one or two immigration fleets of this size depart from Penghu every month. From this, one can imagine how large the scale of immigration organized by Haihan is.
The fleet then traveled on the sea for more than three days at a stretch, and then sailed into a bay. The immigrants were allowed to go to the deck to watch the entry process. Naturally, Han Zhengshan would not give up this opportunity and squeezed to the side of the ship early to occupy a seat.
According to the crew's explanation, this harbor is called Causeway Bay, located near the mouth of the Pearl River in Guangdong. Opposite the bay is the boundary of Daming, which is much closer than the voyage from Zhoushan Island to Ningbo. The prosperity of the ports here is a notch higher than that of Zhoushan Dinghai Port, Ningbo Shipu Port, Taiwan Jilong Port, Penghu Magong Port and other places. Large sailing ships with hundreds of materials can be seen on the shore, and the docks are used to transport goods. There is a constant flow of cargo trucks, and there are obviously more buildings on the shore than at the ports we have been to before.
Han Zhengshan had heard rumors that the Haihan people were good at maritime trade when he was in Hangzhou, but at that time he did not have an intuitive concept of this statement. But along the way, after seeing the ports developed and constructed by Haihan, Han Zhengshan truly realized that what Haihan was proficient in was not just business in the traditional sense, but also the control of sea areas and waterways through ports. The technique is what is truly terrifying about Haihan.
(End of chapter)