Chapter 1807 Joint Action
Although it is already early summer, the climate in the Liaodong Peninsula is still very cool, with the temperature staying in the early teens, which is indeed a bit difficult for soldiers who have come all the way from the south to adapt. But for those who have been waiting for this area for a long time, the current temperature is already very warm. Only the four or five months in the middle of the year are slightly warmer, which can temporarily escape the long cold season.
In the Liaodong region, which has low temperatures all year round, it is not easy to grow food crops. It is indeed a difficult task for the rulers to maintain the livelihood of tens of thousands of people. Haihan was able to gain a foothold in Jinzhou, recruit the soldiers and civilians of Dongjiang Town, and continue to receive Han refugees from all over Liaodong. In addition to the Ministry of Agriculture providing grain suitable for high latitudes, it also relied on strong maritime shipping. Material supplies brought by ability. In the past year alone, hundreds of tons of various grains were transported from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions to Liaodong, which can be said to have maintained the normal operation of the Jinzhou colony regardless of cost.
However, the Executive Committee has always had a relaxed attitude towards the funding needs to maintain the Golden State Colony. Even though it is difficult for Golden State to generate much economic benefits in the foreseeable period, and funds must continue to be invested in the local area to improve infrastructure, its special location The strategic role it played was to make the executive committee willingly bear the relevant expenses. Now that Haihan wants to intervene militarily in the war on the Korean Peninsula, Jinzhou, as one of Haihan's main military bases in this region, is bound to play a greater role.
As the official in charge of propaganda affairs in the Jinzhou area, Liu Shang has basically never left this place since he was sent here in 1635. It can be said that he witnessed with his own eyes how military camps, castles, villages, towns, and ports were rebuilt bit by bit from the ruins in the Jinzhou area. He finally understood how the Haihan people managed to achieve success in a remote place like Sanya. Hong Kong is such a big situation, and this successful development model has been applied to many overseas colonies. In time, it is not impossible for him to turn the Jinzhou area into a new Sanya.
After Haihan served as an official for more than a year and continued to brainwash others, Liu Shang's own ideology was also changing subtly. The common sense he learned in the Ming Dynasty was gradually replaced by the new knowledge brought to him by Haihan, and he gradually became a loyal supporter of this emerging regime. Looking back on the days when I served Ming Ting, it seems like a lifetime ago. However, his official career in Haihan is now considered stable, and Liu Shang has nothing to miss about the Ming Dynasty.
Liu Shang also has his own views on the changes in the situation in North Korea and Haihan's intervention. After Haihan formed an alliance with North Korea last year, North Korea also increased the export of materials and personnel to the Jinzhou area as requested. Of course, these are not completely free aid. Haihan paid North Korea real money and silver. However, Liu Shang always believed that sooner or later North Korea would double the money and return it to Haihan elsewhere. Unexpectedly, his view came true just one year later. In order to invite Haihan to serve as a reinforcement, North Korea almost emptied its treasury. .
Jinzhou is separated from the Korean Peninsula by the Yellow Sea. Liu Shang originally thought that he would not be involved in Korean affairs, but that day he received an order from Chen Yixin to go to Changshan Islands on a ship to pick up Han refugees from the Qing-occupied areas. Promote policy on them. This is considered a routine operation in Haihan's immigration acceptance process, but it is said that the troops performing tasks on the front line are not the Haihan army, but a Portuguese fleet.
This news was slightly unexpected by Liu Shang. Of course he also knew that Portugal was one of Haihan's allies. However, in the past few years, although the Portuguese had also sent military observers to Liaodong to watch the war, their main scope of activities was It is still limited to the area south of Zhoushan Port. Although Liu Shang is not an officer, he has stayed in Jinzhou for a long time and has had contact with the Portuguese. Naturally, he has heard them complain about this rule that does not seem to be so reasonable.
Haihan officials set such rules to safeguard their own interests and avoid allowing other colonial countries to enter the area when their foothold was not yet stable. Naturally, they would not consider the feelings of the Portuguese too much, and Liu Shang would not be too concerned after hearing the complaints. care. However, he did not expect that this system would be canceled by the Executive Committee this year. The Portuguese fleet not only came to the north, but also participated in the war against the Qing Dynasty.
According to Haihan's usual operating methods, Liu Shangneng could imagine that the government must have reached certain conditions with Portugal. For example, like the current situation, the Portuguese fleet will carry out some combat missions with relatively low intensity and risk.
The Changshan Islands are very close to the coastline of the Qing-occupied area, but this sea area has been repeatedly cleared by the Haihan Navy many times. The enemy's warships and even fishing boats have all been cleared, so there is no need to worry about the clearing. The army can set up an ambush in Changshan Islands. Guanglu Island, once stationed by the rebel general Shang Kexi of the Ming Dynasty, is now a temporary transit point for Haihan to receive Han refugees.
The remaining military camps on the island have recently been transformed into dormitories to house refugees from the coastal areas, and Liu Shang's workplace is here. In addition to publicity work, he is also responsible for screening the elements of these refugees and picking out the dangerous elements among them.
Originally, the job of screening refugees should be done by the military police or personnel from the Ministry of Security. However, because he had previously committed crimes by discovering spies in the Shandong refugee camp, the superiors believed that he had the talent and ability in this area, so they used him this time. Such work was entrusted to him.
Only Liu Shang himself knows this. He has no talent, but has received special espionage training. He has a professional level far beyond ordinary people in identifying identities and interrogating formulas. It is natural to deal with those non-professional guys. Down. However, he is not opposed to this kind of errand. After all, whether it is civil or military in Haihan officialdom, promotion requires the accumulation of real merits. If some dangerous elements can be caught from the refugees, then the same is true. Will record merit.
Liu Shang took a boat from Lushun and spent a whole day before arriving at Guanglu Island at night. Since the navigation lighthouse and various port facilities on the island were destroyed when Shang Kexi defected, Haihan never organized a rebuild due to various considerations. It took Liu Shang's fleet a relatively long time to get ashore. Guided by torches, we slowly docked.
There is currently an army company stationed on the island, with about 200 people, and the number of refugees temporarily resettled here is more than 1,300. According to the progress of the Portuguese's actions, they should come to Guanglu Island in the next two days. While handing over the refugees, they will also supply food and fresh water from here to ensure their sea endurance.
After Liu Shang disembarked, he met with the army company commander and civil affairs officials to learn about the current situation of the refugees on the island. Although he was in charge of propaganda work, he was already a member of the Youth League when he was in Sanya, and he had long been regarded as a key cultivation target. After arriving in Liaodong, he also assumed more responsibilities in civil affairs. On Guanglu Island, where there are no time travellers, Liu Shang, who represents the Golden State Management Committee, is a first-class official. Most of the affairs related to civil affairs on the island are decided by him.
Although this feeling of having power is very good, Liu Shang will not get carried away. He knows very well where his power comes from. This is all through hard work and hard work in the past year or so. Point exchanged. If your work results do not meet the expectations of your boss, the power at hand will soon be taken away. There are at least hundreds of officials like yourself in the Youth League. If you want to continue to move up, you must not slack off at all. . Regarding the origins of these Han refugees, Liu Shang already knew something about it before coming to Guanglu Island. He had no objection to the use of force to plunder people, because these areas were originally the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the Manchus also used force to occupy the Liaodong area and then enslaved these Han people. Haihan managed to snatch them back from the Manchu territory. He was actually rescuing these Han people and giving them a chance to regain their freedom. This was not only his view, he also had to instill it in these Han refugees. Let them understand where their way out is.
The only thing that seemed discordant about the whole thing was that the task was not carried out by the Haihan Army, which was mainly composed of Han people, but by the Portuguese fleet that appeared in the area as a coalition force. The Portuguese snatched the Ming Han people who were enslaved by the Manchus from the Manchus, and then arranged for these Han people to join the Haihan nationality. This process actually involved four countries. It is probably only in the special environment of Liaodong that such a situation would occur. situation.
"Currently, out of the more than 1,300 people on the island, only about 300 have gone through preliminary identification, and there are no obvious problems with their identities. This progress is too slow." Liu Shang shook his head and expressed dissatisfaction after hearing the report from the civil affairs department staff. : "If the remaining one thousand people stay on the island for one more day, they will consume hundreds of kilograms of food in vain... Starting from tomorrow, arrange for them to repair houses, docks, reservoirs, whatever. Let them rest. In addition, the work of identifying refugees must be accelerated. I asked the company commander to arrange for a dozen smart soldiers to give them a temporary training tomorrow morning to teach them how to quickly identify refugees. Don’t spend the night in Guanglu Island. Arrange a boat to transport people back to Jinzhou as soon as possible.”
Regarding the current situation on Guanglu Island, Liu Shang quickly proposed a solution. He had handled a lot of these matters when he was in Shandong. When he arrived in Liaodong, he dealt with immigrants almost every day, so he was naturally very skilled. In the past one or two years, the Haihan Army had been pulling people back from the Liaodong coast. Liu Shang also had a good idea of how to deal with these refugees. However, the infrastructure on Guanglu Island was poor and there were not enough professional manpower. Many processes that were originally simple and quick have to take more time to complete.
Including the permanent troops, Haihan's population in Jinzhou's control area is about 30,000. However, this population size is still far from enough for Haihan who wants to build Jinzhou into a bridgehead in the Northeast. It will be limited. Improving work efficiency of the labor force has become one of the main ways for the Golden State authorities to solve the problem of insufficient supply and demand. Even the population that has just been brought back from enemy-occupied areas must be fully utilized with careful planning.
One of Liu Shang's tasks is to ensure that these laborers are put into local social production as soon as possible. He hopes that the more than a thousand people on the island can be transported back to Jinzhou in batches within two to three days, so that they can Free up the limited barracks on the island to accommodate the next batch of refugees brought by the Portuguese.
After Liu Shang finished arranging the work, he went to the camp in person to inspect the living conditions of the refugees. When the refugees heard that this was a high-ranking official from Haihan who came from Jinzhou, they all knelt on the ground to show respect. When Liu Shang saw this, he used the topic to make some use of the topic, publicizing the social tradition that Haihan was not allowed to kneel and worship, and comforted him by the way. The emotions of the refugees allow them to obey the government's arrangements, and their future lives will be guaranteed accordingly.
Although this kind of comfort could not completely dispel the refugees' doubts, seeing the people-friendly attitude shown by this high-ranking official still gave some comfort to many refugees who were worried that they would continue to suffer under Haihan's hands.
Early the next morning, various departments on the island made adjustments according to Liu Shang's arrangements. Hundreds of immigrants whose identities had been screened were organized to board two immigration ships at the port early in the morning, and then immediately set off for Jinzhou. The remaining immigrants were divided into two parts. One part was assigned to work such as logging, digging drainage ditches, and making mud bricks, while the other part began to register their identity. According to Liu Shang's arrangement, every time the identity screening and registration of two hundred people is completed, they will be immediately arranged to board the ship and transported back to Jinzhou for resettlement as soon as possible.
However, the Portuguese visited Guanglu Island again sooner than expected. On the afternoon of the second day after Liu Shang arrived here, the sails of a fleet appeared on the distant sea. Two hours later, Liu Shang met Simao, the Portuguese officer commanding the fleet, at the port.
"Master Liu, this time we brought 484 Han refugees to Guanglu Island. I believe these poor people will be reborn on your land." Xi Mang said to Liu Shang with a smile.
However, the subordinate behind him reminded him something in a low voice, and Simang immediately added: "On the way to Guanglu Island, several refugees died of illness. The accurate number should be 474. ”
Liu Shang didn't care much about this change. He nodded and said: "Mr. Ximang has worked hard all the way. Let's stay on Guanglu Island tonight! However, the conditions on the island are limited and we can't hold a decent reception banquet. I hope Don’t be offended, Mr. Simang!”
Simang responded: "This is not the first time I have come to this island. As long as our joint operations can continue, these are minor problems!"
(End of chapter)