Chapter 1808 Guanglu Island Refugee Camp
The more than 400 Han refugees sent by Ximang this time were captured yesterday near Zhuanghe Town, about 80 nautical miles away from Guanglu Island. They basically brought back an entire village. After their whereabouts were exposed, the Portuguese who landed at that time also engaged in a small-scale battle with the Manchu armed forces in the town. The Portuguese easily defeated their opponents with zero battle losses, so Simang seemed particularly relaxed after arriving on Guanglu Island. .
In addition to the group of Han refugees sent to Haihan, the Portuguese also looted several large local Manchu landlords. According to the agreement between the two parties, this part of the harvest did not need to be distributed to Haihan. Into the pockets of the Portuguese.
Simang has roughly calculated the gains from these days of operations. Although it is not enough to cover the military expenses of the northward expedition, it is still a considerable amount of income. Moreover, Haihan has not limited the operation period. As long as the Portuguese promise not to Just attack the Han people, which means that the Portuguese fleet can continue its armed operations on the east coast of the Liaodong Peninsula and seize property from the Qing-controlled areas in a simple and crude way.
As for why Haihan reached such a deal with him, Ximang also understood clearly that Haihan needed a large number of people to fill the new colonial ports of Jinzhou, Liaodong and North Korea, and relying on traditional methods was obviously unable to meet such needs. The Han Dynasty was temporarily unable to divide its troops to do such rough work, so it gave itself an advantage. Once the war situation in Liaodong changes in favor of Haihan, the Haihan people may take back this job and do it themselves. Therefore, Ximang will take advantage of this period of time when the war situation is in a stalemate to do more business in Liaodong.
Of course, for the sake of efficiency, the Portuguese would not have much patience when dealing with the local Han people in Liaodong. Although Haihan asked Portugal not to use force against the Han people, when the Portuguese encountered armed resistance after landing, who had time to distinguish whether the enemy was Han or Manchu, and some Han people who tried to resist would be killed during this period. Portugal also captured some injured Han people and sent them to Haihan territory. The Han refugees who died on the way this time were the people injured during the previous capture. However, this kind of personnel loss was within the normal range. Liu Shang knew it well and would not deliberately ask about the real cause of death of these refugees.
If hundreds of refugees hadn't been sent away early in the morning according to Liu Shang's arrangements, the barracks on the island would not have been able to accommodate the newly arrived refugees. Liu Shang now has some people under his command. He does not need to personally handle the matter of accepting refugees. He only needs to give orders. It is much easier than before when all the work had to be done personally. Moreover, in the past, dealing with the Portuguese was mostly handled by officials from the military and diplomatic departments. Now Liu Shang's authority is sufficient to handle such high-level errands.
Although he said that there was no reception banquet, Liu Shang actually invited Xi Mang to have dinner with him. The conditions on the island are indeed limited, but since it is close to the sea, the seafood can satisfy him no matter what. Moreover, Liu Shang did not take care of everything for dinner. Instead, he asked Simang to transfer several Portuguese cooks from the ship, who made several hometown-style dishes using ingredients and seasonings on the island.
"There is a saying in our country that wine is the son of the earth and the sun. It can invigorate the spirit and inspire wisdom!" Simang did not come empty-handed. He specially asked people to take two bottles of wine from Portugal from the ship and invited Liu during dinner. Shang shared a drink: "Seafood should be paired with white wine, and meat should be paired with red wine, so I brought a bottle of each to invite Mr. Liu to taste our country's fine wine!"
Liu Shang was actually not good at drinking. Although he poured two glasses of wine in front of him, he only tasted it briefly and did not drink with his head up like Ximang. The purpose of inviting Simang to dine was not only for diplomatic etiquette, but also to take this opportunity to learn more about the battle situation on the front line from Simang.
Liu Shang is neither a diplomat nor a military attache, but he knows very well that changes in the situation in Liaodong, including the Korean Peninsula, will be closely related to his work here. The Haihan Army, or the coalition forces including the Portuguese, are on the front line Every battle may have the potential to become propaganda material. The development and changes in international relations in the entire region are important objects that the propaganda department he is responsible for needs to pay attention to and make use of at any time.
In principle, the military's battle reports are not completely open to the propaganda department. Generally, some battle cases are purposefully selected and handed over to Liu Shang's department for processing. Press releases related to the Liaodong War published in Haihan domestic newspapers were basically reviewed and compiled by Liu Shang before being sent back to China for publication.
As for the versions performed by storytellers in teahouses and restaurants, the materials are basically provided by the propaganda department and then written and processed by the storytellers themselves. Liu Shang was discovered by officials from the Propaganda Department in the teahouse because he was good at making up stories. He had his own way of processing real battle cases into gripping stories. However, the limited information provided by the military, whether in terms of timeliness or level of detail, was It is difficult to meet Liu Shang's needs. Of course, he understood that the military had the obligation to keep military secrets, and he could not force this kind of thing. However, since he now had the opportunity to learn about the battle situation on the front line from other channels, he did not want to miss it.
But Liu Shang wanted to find out about the battle situation on the Korean front here in Ximang, but he was looking for the wrong person. The Portuguese fleet had not sailed into the Yalu River since the expedition to Jianghua Island, and he did not know that the allied fleet led by Wang Tom and Xu Yuzhuo had sailed in the upper reaches of the Yalu River. combat progress. What Ximang knew was that the coalition fleet established a temporary stronghold on the upper reaches of the Yalu River and formed a confrontation with the Qing army.
Of course, based on Liu Shang's understanding of the military, more information can be inferred from this. For example, the navy's current battle with the Qing army in the upper reaches of the Yalu River is not very intense, otherwise it would not have allowed the Portuguese to engage in guerrilla warfare so leisurely on the Liaodong coastline; but it seems that the Haihan Army will not be able to escape from the Yalu River for a while, otherwise it would not be possible. They would hand over the task of plundering the Han people to the Portuguese, or at least hand it over to the Fujian Navy. This should save a lot of communication troubles, and maybe even attract more Han people to flee on their own initiative.
In fact, it is not that Wang Tom has not considered Liu Shang's idea, but the Fujian Navy has penetrated deep into the upper reaches of the Yalu River. If it wants to arrange a defense change with the Portuguese fleet, it will take another two or three days to complete the defense handover. Moreover, the Portuguese were transferred to serve as sentries in the Yalu River, and the Fujian Navy was transferred outside to perform lucrative tasks. The Portuguese would definitely feel resentful about such an arrangement afterwards. So Wang Tom simply made the mistake and handed over the task of raiding and harassing the enemy to Ximang's fleet. Although the actual effect of disrupting social order in the Qing-controlled areas may not be as good as that of the Fujian Navy, at least the two allies would not have much objection to this arrangement, and the average daily harvest of hundreds of people can be considered satisfactory.
Of course, these arrangements by the military would not have any explanation to the outside world. Liu Shang could not understand the mystery for a while. He could only understand it as a special arrangement for other purposes by the military boss. Fortunately, Simang did not deliberately hide anything about the recent progress of the Portuguese fleet. Perhaps he was drunk, or perhaps he originally planned to brag about himself in front of Haihan officials. He introduced Liu Shang in detail. He explained how he commanded the troops to clash left and right on the 500-mile-long Liaodong coastline, causing chaos in the local military and politics.
Simang was not entirely bragging. In just a few days since the Portuguese fleet launched its attack, they had already attacked more than ten villages and towns in the Qing-occupied area on the east coast of Liaoning, killing and wounding hundreds of Manchus and taking many captives back. They killed more than 2,000 Han refugees and looted money and food, and achieved fruitful results. During this period, the Portuguese only suffered minor battle losses of five dead and twelve wounded. In Simang's view, compared with the gains from the operation, this loss was almost negligible.
"If your country could have allowed our fleet to enter the northern seas for coordinated operations a year or two earlier, maybe the Qing Dynasty would not even have the idea of heading south from the Korean Peninsula." Simang drank most of the two bottles of wine on the table by himself. His face was flushed at the moment, but he was still sane, but when analyzing the current situation, he began to speak a little arrogantly: "With the strength of our fleet, we can completely block the Yalu River all year round and completely cut off the Qing army's idea of invading North Korea. At that time, your army will advance from Jinzhou to the northeast, and our army will advance from the Yalu River to the northwest. I believe that we will soon capture the entire Liaodong Peninsula and point our sword at Shenyang City!”
Although Liu Shang was a civil servant, he was not illiterate in the military. He couldn't help but shake his head and objected: "General Ximang's words are wrong. If your fleet wants to block the Yalu River all year round, it must have a logistics base in the Yalu River Basin. But North Korea may not be willing to cooperate, and Jinzhou is too far away. Is it possible to maintain the operation of the fleet just by looting supplies from the Qing Dynasty? "
Ximang was stunned for a moment, and felt that what Liu Shang said made sense, so he threw out another plan: "Then I can also follow your country's approach and lead the fleet to go outside the capital of North Korea first, forcing them to also cooperate with our country. Form an alliance and this will solve the problem! ”
Liu Shang smiled and said nothing. One of the main reasons why the North Koreans were willing to form an alliance with Haihan was that Haihan was also a Han regime, so there was not much resistance to North Korea. The non-Han regime wants to force North Korea to surrender. The most typical example is the current Qing Dynasty. Even if North Korea knows that it is defeated, it is still unwilling to bow its head and form an alliance with it easily. If the Portuguese wanted to follow Haihan's original approach, it would be difficult to achieve the same effect.
Of course, the Portuguese can also copy the routines they used to open up shipping routes and build colonies in other areas on the earth, but this area already has a colonial powerhouse called Haihan, and Portugal wants to independently operate a trading port of its own. Or a colony, it is basically impossible. We can only rely on Haihan to open up sea routes and commercial relations.
When the two were chatting in a lively manner, one of Liu Shang's subordinates came in in a panic and reported a piece of news. After hearing this, Liu Shang did not even bother to eat, and complained to Xi Mang: "Something happened in the refugee camp. There seems to be a conflict between the refugees. I have to go and take a look. Sorry! ”
When Ximang heard this, he put down the wine glass in his hand and stood up: "Then let's go together. If anything happens, I still have hundreds of people here who can be dispatched at any time."
The temporary camp currently hosting refugees on the island is the military camp of Qian Shang Ke Xi. After Haihan took over the place, it was simply renovated. The current reception capacity is about a thousand people. When Liu Shang landed on the island yesterday, the number of refugees on the island had actually exceeded its hosting capacity, so Liu Shang was eager to arrange for some refugees to be transported back to Jinzhou for resettlement.
The security of this temporary refugee camp on the island is maintained by the army company stationed on the island, but in a place like this that lacks formal social organization, it is very common for refugees to fight over living conditions or other reasons. Moreover, the Portuguese often "pack up" people in villages and towns to bring them back. It is also common for these refugees to hug together for warmth in a strange environment. Once a fight breaks out, it can easily turn into a large-scale group fight. So as soon as Liu Shang heard that there was trouble in the refugee camp, he had no intention of chatting with Xi Mang anymore.
When Liu Shang arrived at the refugee camp, the garrison had already intervened on the scene, isolated the barracks where the situation occurred from the outside world, and ordered all the refugees in the camp to return to their houses immediately, otherwise they would cause rebellion. The situation is basically under control. All that's left is to find out what happened and deal with the relevant people.
The officer who directed the quelling the chaos at the scene saw Liu Shang arriving and briefly explained the situation to him. In fact, the situation is very simple. A refugee family that just arrived on the island today had a quarrel with another family that had been on the island for three days over food distribution, and a group fight broke out. Although most of the participants were bare-handed and without any lethal weapons, several people were beaten with bloody head injuries and broken arms and legs. Fortunately, the garrison arrived in time to separate the two fighting groups, and no lives were lost in the end.
In fact, this kind of thing happens almost every day in refugee camps. It’s just a matter of the size of the fight. Liu Shang didn’t have any special reaction after hearing this. He just said lightly: “I still have the strength to fight, but it seems I’m still too full.” Starting tomorrow, the food supply for everyone participating in the fight will be halved! Also, arrange for them to do the most tiring work. Since they are full of energy, put it to good use!”
Simang responded from the side: "Isn't Mr. Liu prepared to punish the perpetrators severely?"
Liu Shang shook his head and said: "These refugees have just arrived and their hearts are unstable. If they are dealt with too harshly, it may affect other people's confidence in Haihan. Punishment must be punished, but the methods must be paid attention to. We need their labor force, and use Physical labor to change their mentality is how I deal with it.”
(End of chapter)