Chapter 1458 The Great Migration
After dinner, Shen's uncle and nephew continued to talk by candlelight at night, discussing arrangements for immigration and relocation. The more than 10,000 people on the island are not too many, but if they want to move across the sea to settle in Liaodong, there are quite a lot of pots and jars that need to be taken away, and it cannot be all moved in a few days. Who will be sent to Liaodong to set up the front station, who will stay in Pidao to finish the work, how to coordinate the shipping schedule and immigration batches with Haihan, and what material support Haihan will need to provide during the process, all of which require the details to be drafted in advance. Just communicate well with Haihan.
Shen Zhixiang was afraid that things might change and did not dare to delay in Pidao any longer. He set off back to Liaodong early the next morning. Shen Shikui sent him to the dock, and before leaving, he specifically warned: "After you go back, you can explore the opinions of the Haihan people and see if you can send some of the Shen clan members to settle in the south. It would be best if you can go to Sanya. I heard that The Haihan people like to recruit young talents with Ming Dynasty background to study in government-run academies in Sanya. See if you can take this route and send a few smart kids from the clan to them.”
Shen Zhixiang said: "What does uncle mean... to make Haihan feel at ease?"
Shen Shikui nodded and said: "The Haihan people know that our Shen family is rooted in Liaodong. If we don't take the initiative to send some of our descendants to the south, how can we reassure them?"
Shen Zhixiang pondered for a moment, then nodded solemnly, accepting the matter. Although he wholeheartedly wants to join Haihan, it involves the future of the Shen family, so he must be cautious when handling it. In fact, Shen Shikui had mentioned this a long time ago, but Dongjiang Town has never found the right time to bring it up to Haihan. If the cooperative relationship between the two parties wants to go further, this should be an unavoidable obstacle. Sending several younger members of the clan to serve as hostages in the south actually has a symbolic meaning far greater than its practical effect. However, both parties understand that this is a ceremony that can be recognized by each other, as long as the meaning is fulfilled. Shen Zhixiang believed that Haihan would not refuse Dongjiang Town's initiative to make such a request, and all he had to do now was to think about the wording.
In early April, the migration of people from Pidao to the Haihan-occupied area in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula finally kicked off. Although the total number of migratory people is probably less than 20,000, this is already the largest maritime population migration in Northeast Asia in the past two or three years. In addition to the more than 20 sailboats provided by the Haihan military, the ships participating in this transportation mission were also dozens of large and small sailboats owned by Dongjiang Town itself. Even the few warships It temporarily acted as a transport ship.
Although the General Military Office has informed the people of the plan to move back to Liaodong, many people still have doubts about whether their lives will be stable after returning to Liaodong. They were not worried about whether Haihan would keep his promise and give him a place to settle himself and his family, but they were afraid that the Jin army would launch a counterattack again after it was said that they had been beaten back to Jinzhou City behind closed doors. Even if the achievements of the Haihan Army were there, many people still insisted that the Houjin Iron Cavalry was unstoppable and would lose to Haihan before just because its troops were not strong enough to support a battle of this scale. Once they recover from the defeat, the opponent can mobilize tens of thousands of troops to counterattack. It is hard to say whether Haihan can stop the Hou Jin army by then.
Although returning to live in Liaodong is something these people have always looked forward to, compared to Liaodong where the situation is not stable, the barren Pidao is safer. At least Hou Jin has not yet mobilized troops to attack Pidao. It's just that they didn't know that the appearance of the Haihan people had changed the original historical process. Otherwise, Jin would have raised his troops to attack North Korea later this year, and easily wiped out the Pidao Ming army, which had little combat effectiveness. Regardless of whether they were willing to move back to Liaodong at this time, they had actually received great favor from Haihan.
When Dongjiang Town withdrew from Liaodong to Pidao, the cross-sea transportation lasted for several months. During this period, the Changshan Islands were also used as a transfer station, and tens of thousands of Han people were rescued from Liaodong before Hou Jin. After these people left their hometowns, many of them died on the islands in the Yellow Sea because of food problems. Those who can survive until Haihan appears are considered lucky, because after Haihan got online with Dongjiang Town, he took the initiative to propose a plan to exchange aid for immigrants, solving the food supply problem for Dongjiang Town. A large number of people who could only wait to die on Pi Island were also organized and Haihan transported them to the controlled areas in the south for resettlement.
In the past year or so, Haihan has received more than 20,000 immigrants from Dongjiang Town, and Dongjiang Town, which was on the verge of collapse, came back to life and made a comeback with the assistance provided by Haihan. Although there was some intention of pretending to be a tiger, they finally took back some land from Liaodong and drove the gold thieves to the north.
Shen Shikui clasped his hands behind his back and watched the people on the pier carrying large and small bags to board the ship, feeling filled with emotion. He knew that after moving back to Liaodong, Dongjiang Town would most likely enter a state of existence in name only. Haihan will not sit back and watch the existence of the Dongjiang General Military Mansion, and will definitely try to erect the existing organization. His official position as the Dongjiang General Soldier may soon become a vacant position, but Shen Shikui is not a person who is greedy for power. He believes that Even if he loses the power in his hands, it is still better than watching Dongjiang Town destroyed in his own hands.
As for how the Haihan people will gradually split up Dongjiang Town's establishment in the future, although Shen Shikui has no clear inference, he knows that this will be an inevitable trend. For these people who are unable to protect themselves, perhaps taking refuge in Haihan is the wisest choice at the moment. After all, neither the Ming Dynasty nor North Korea can provide survival materials and military assistance to Dongjiang Town like Haihan. It is at least better to hug this thigh and fight for a chance to live than to huddle on a leather island and continue to wait for death.
The first batch of Pidao people who boarded the ship to Lushun included more than 2,400 people, most of whom were young and strong men. The main task of these people after going there is to build camps and residences for those who come after them as soon as possible. Therefore, in addition to clothes and other personal belongings, the most they carry with them are hammers, axes, chisels, saws and other tools, almost one for each person. In order to avoid being unable to carry out construction after arriving at the local area. For this reason, Shen Shikui gathered all the craftsmen on the island who knew civil engineering and sent them to Lushun with the first batch of immigrants.
After sailing at sea for two days, the fleet successfully arrived at Port Arthur. Many of the immigrants could not hide the excitement on their faces the moment they set foot on land. After all, returning to their homeland is the most important event in life for these people who fled, second only to survival.
Lushun Chief Executive Sha Xi also came to the port in person to supervise the immigration reception process. According to Haihan's arrangement, these immigrants would only stay briefly at the port. After eating a meal prepared by Haihan, they would immediately hit the road to their destination. This was an arrangement made by Sha Xi after discussions with Qian Tiandun and others. In his opinion, the sooner the people of Dongjiang Town can settle down, the sooner they can mobilize manpower to Lushun to complete the many development projects he planned.
Sha Xi was in charge of immigration affairs when he was in the south, and he was well aware of the uneasiness of the people who originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty when they entered the Haihan area. In addition, the status of the immigrants transported from Pi Island this time was relatively special, and almost all of them were For the military dependents in Dongjiang Town, Sha Xi canceled the identity registration procedures when accepting immigrants at general ports, and directly counted the number of people reported by Dongjiang Town. After settling down in the future, he would slowly check it with the roster provided by Dongjiang Town.
Reducing the link of identity registration can also slightly alleviate the uneasiness of these Dongjiang Town military families. Most of them are not fully mentally prepared for the possibility of changing their nationality, and they do not have the same urgency as ordinary immigrants who actively seek naturalization in exchange for better benefits. For them, as long as the establishment of Dongjiang Town is still there, then they are still the people of the Ming Dynasty, they are just temporarily relying on others due to the situation. As for the new ruler Haihan, it may take some time for them to change their original mentality and adapt to the new social system in the new environment.
Chen Yixin was personally responsible for the maintenance of security at the port, and for this purpose he also specially transferred a group of personnel from the front line. He was not worried that there were spies infiltrated by Houjin among these new immigrants, but he just wanted to guard against anyone challenging Haihan's authority in the local area. And such a situation is indeed inevitable. Soon, a few men who were not so clear-headed actually asked Haihan to provide wine and meat. After their request was rejected, they even threw away the dry food they had just distributed, and aggressively asked Haihan officials to come forward and argue. Naturally, Sha Xi would not overstep his authority to handle such a security incident, so he immediately sent someone to notify Chen Yixin to come and handle it.
When Chen Yixin rushed to the scene, officers from Dongjiang Town had already come to deal with the matter. However, the guys who made the trouble were obviously used to being naughty and did not take the officer's warning seriously. They still refused to give up.
Chen Yixin sneered secretly after seeing this, stepped forward to signal the officers to retreat, and then ordered: "Arrest these people, and give each of them ten lashes!"
The leader defended himself: "We are from Dongjiang Town, why do you, Haihan, want to punish us?"
Chen Yixin didn't bother to argue with him at all, and just gave another order: "Whoever disobeys orders will receive thirty lashes!"
Haihan soldiers stepped forward and picked up the troublemakers by their necks like chickens. Then they pushed them to the ground, took off their shirts, and whipped them severely in front of more than two thousand immigrants.
After being whipped, these people became obviously much more honest and did not dare to yell or curse anymore. They have probably realized that Dongjiang Town does not have the final say in this place. Even if their personal bravery is not bad, their abilities are far from qualified if they want to be fierce in front of the Haihan people.
Chen Yixin asked someone to bring a tin trumpet, and then he raised the trumpet and shouted to the frightened new immigrants: "This is Liaodong, but it is not the Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty, but the Liaodong of Haihan. The laws enforced here are also the same." The current regulations of Haihan shall prevail, so put away all your previous behavior! Anyone who disobeys the arrangements and yells at the staff just now is the best lesson for those who don't want to be here! If you do, you can go back to Pidao immediately and see what Mr. Shen will say.”
The immigrants suddenly fell into silence. Although they also knew that this place was occupied by Haihan, they did not expect that the other party would so straightforwardly change the ownership of the place to Haihan's name, and the real owner of Ming Dynasty seemed to be a thing of the past. It was only then that they truly realized that the land they were stepping on was no longer the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the Haihan people around them did not seem to particularly respect the people of the Ming Dynasty. As for returning to Pi Island, even the few people who had just been whipped would not be happy to go back. Due to the saline-alkali land on Napi Island, it is basically impossible to produce food. How can it be compared with the rich land of Liaodong.
Chen Yixin saw that his speech seemed to have a deterrent effect, so he left with the people and handed the scene over to Sha Xilai to deal with the aftermath.
Including the time for eating, the immigrants only stayed at the port for more than an hour after landing, and then began to move northwestward one after another under the leadership. They didn't even enter Port Arthur Fort, but walked directly through the fields a hundred meters away.
The immigrants looked at the farmland that had begun to be cultivated here with great interest, which was a sight that could not be seen on Phi Island. Thinking that they might be able to get farmland after that, many people have begun to wonder whether they will have time to plant a wave of spring wheat after they settle down.
In fact, due to the serious shortage of labor, the spring plowing advocated by Sha Xi near Lushun was only a big success but not a raindrop, and it did not really take off on a large scale. However, only two to three hundred acres of land are cultivated. For Shaxi, this is at most the level of a demonstration field, and it cannot be said to be agricultural development at all. The more this happened, the more confused he became about the new immigrants who had just arrived in Lushun. If he could have two thousand more people available, then almost all the problems encountered by Lushun's infrastructure and agricultural development would be eliminated. It can be solved easily.
Of course, this situation only exists in imagination. Even if the immigrants have to mobilize their labor force after they settle down, it is by no means a situation where they can live alone. The military is definitely going to take action, and even if he wants to grab human resources, he will definitely not be able to grab the military. If a quarter of the more than two thousand people could be assigned to him in the end, it would be a situation that would make him laugh while he fell asleep.
However, the people of Dongjiang Town did not know that everyone inside Haihan was actually spying on their team. They just followed Haihan's arrangements and marched all the way to their destination. Finally, in the afternoon of the same day, they arrived at the place named "Dongjiang Camp" by Haihan. " place. The terrain of this riverside plain is flat and open, and there is a water vein flowing into the sea from nearby. It is indeed very suitable for setting up camps or farming. However, the top priority is to enable the immigrants who arrive here to be resettled as soon as possible.
(End of chapter)