Chapter 2344
Everyone couldn't help but be a little surprised when they heard this. They didn't expect that the ruthless character rumored recently was in front of them. From Gong Hu's tone, it was obvious that he was not bragging about this matter, and he was even more impressed at the moment.
Although these people planned to join the army in Jinzhou, most of them were just civilians and had no military experience in the past, let alone killing people and beheadings. Naturally, they looked up to Gong Hu who took the Tatar head and defected to Haihan. perspective to view its behavior.
At that moment, someone praised: "If the Han people can be as tough as this brother, how can the great country of Liaodong be so advantageous to the Manchu Tatars!"
Someone else responded: "All the Tatars are soldiers and have practiced riding and shooting since childhood. How can we and the Han people have such conditions? Just like in front of us, there are only a few heroes like this brother, so the Ming Dynasty cannot defeat the Tatars. Ah!”
"The Tatars are not invulnerable, and their severed heads will not grow back. As long as they dare to fight them, there will not be as many Tatars as we Han people after all!" Gong Hu was naturally the one who advocated fighting against the Manchus, but he was He was born in a military household and was very aware of the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty's army. He paused and said: "I see that all the Han troops in this navy are Han, but they can defeat the Tatars. That means the problem does not lie with the Han people!" ”
As for which link the problem is, Gong Hu can vaguely feel it, but he doesn't know how to express it. Obviously all the soldiers are Han people, why is the Haihan army so powerful, but the Ming army has been passively beaten? This is obviously a problem with the people commanding the army. But what is the problem? Is it the generals of each army, the Ministry of War that mobilizes the army, the court that decides whether to fight or not, or the superior Emperor? It is difficult to tell with Gong Hu's limited knowledge, and he dare not say something subconsciously. Treasonous words.
"As long as you stay in the Haihan Army for a few years, you will be able to find the answer to this question!" A Haihan officer who was listening to them discussing this topic couldn't help but interjected: "But for now, please give me the answer. Line up! Don’t chatter like a bunch of women!”
After being scolded, everyone, including Gong Hu, was silent. They quickly shut up and lined up, not daring to talk casually. They have not forgotten how they were freed from the Manchus, and have no intention of challenging the Haihan Army.
The troops sent by the Haihan Army to Liaodong in the past few years were almost all southern soldiers, and their adaptation to the environment was never ideal. Therefore, after occupying Jinzhou, the Northern Corps began to recruit local soldiers on the spot, mainly from Shandong and Liaodong. The land is the main one. These recruits have adapted much better to the northern environment and are more conducive to exerting their due combat effectiveness.
Most of the Han people rescued from the Manchu-controlled areas had irreconcilable hatred with the Manchus, and these people became key targets for conscription. Among the Haihan Army currently stationed in Jinzhou, a considerable number of soldiers come from this special group, and their performance after training is also remarkable, so now every time such an immigrant ship arrives, the military will First conduct a round of recruitment to recruit people like Gong Hu into the army.
However, as the top leader in the Jinzhou area, Chen Yixin is most concerned about not how many new soldiers he recruits from the refugees every day, but whether these new refugees can be successfully resettled into various local villages and towns.
Although the military's combat effectiveness is the basis for maintaining stability in the Golden State, it also requires stable logistical supplies from the local society. For the Jinzhou region, the growth of population means the simultaneous growth of productivity, and the dependence on food and other daily necessities transported from other places will be gradually reduced. Only in this way can the local society be expected to enter a state of normal operation.
It is not easy to do this. The situation in Jinzhou is too special. It is an imperial border, an overseas enclave, and a frontline zone in a state of war. Most of the combat materials must rely on external supplies. Due to local environmental constraints, the current industries we operate are agricultural projects based on planting and fishery, which makes it difficult to revitalize the local economy.
Of course, with the technology Haihan has mastered, it is not difficult to develop high-profit industries such as salt production and shipbuilding locally. The funding problem can also be solved through Haihan Bank, but the biggest problem is that these industries are labor-intensive. industries, and the population size of the Golden State is difficult to meet the labor needs of these industries.
Therefore, for the development prospects of Jinzhou, expanding the army establishment is actually far less useful than increasing the population size. If Chen Yixin wants to make Jinzhou, a small place of more than 1,000 square kilometers, develop in the direction of a normal coastal colonial area and trading port, then We must try to quickly increase the population size so that the local area can have enough labor force to engage in other industries besides agriculture, and then improve the local economic level.
As the confrontation on the Isthmus frontline tends to ease with the arrival of midwinter, the special operations group and the navy's mopping up operations hundreds of miles away are coming to an end. Chen Yixin no longer has to stay on the front line every day and pay attention to the movements of the Qing army. , more attention can be paid to the gains of this joint operation.
The number of refugees brought back from the Changshan Islands in each batch recently has been around a thousand, which far exceeds the population import of Jinzhou in a year under normal circumstances. For Jinzhou, which has a huge labor gap, the arrival of these refugees is not a burden, but a resource that Chen Yixin has been waiting for.
"A total of 1,078 people arrived in Hong Kong today, including 820 men and 258 women. Among them, there are a total of 27 registered carpenters, blacksmiths, plasterers and other craftsmen. Those who can write articles The six scholars have already made separate arrangements. Another 37 people have volunteered to join the army and have completed the personnel handover with the garrison. They can join the army if their physical examination is fine. "
"These special personnel and their families will be resettled as soon as possible according to their assigned destinations. The remaining people will be dispersed and resettled in various villages and towns in the Jinzhou area according to the previous rules..."
"Wait!" Chen Yixin stopped Liu Shang's report: "Starting from this group of people, the resettlement method needs to be changed."
"Please give me your instructions." Liu Shang responded respectfully.
"The salt field at Shuangdao Bay in Lushun has always been seriously short of people. You should first draw 500 people from this group of people, seize the time this winter to complete the infrastructure project, and strive to put it into operation after the beginning of next spring."
Chen Yixin paused and then continued: "The remaining people will be distributed as usual. In addition, there should be no major wars breaking out on the isthmus defense line in the near future. The civilians on the front line can withdraw half of them first to see what infrastructure projects are in place. Try to arrange it to be completed this winter.”
Liu Shang hurriedly responded one by one, thinking that as long as the war ceased, there would be no need for so many civilians to be waiting at the front, and the rear would naturally be freed up to complete large-scale infrastructure projects. It's just that the environment in winter is relatively harsh, and construction will be much more difficult than in other seasons. Even if winter lasts for a long time, infrastructure projects may not make much progress.
But there is nothing that can be done about it. Except for winter, the Jinzhou area is basically in a state of war preparation. Civilians may be drafted to serve on the front line at any time. Many large-scale infrastructure projects can only be constructed intermittently. The construction period of the Shuangdao Bay Salt Farm mentioned by Chen Yixin has been postponed from last winter to this winter. Chen Yixin no longer has the patience to wait any longer, and plans to quickly complete and put into production while there is currently a surplus of labor available.
As long as Jinzhou begins to produce large amounts of salt, Chen Yixin will have his own channels to sell it to various places in the Bohai Bay. When more merchant ships come to Jinzhou to transport salt, it will naturally drive the development of the local service industry and shipping industry. According to the designed production capacity of the Shuangdao Bay Salt Farm, if it can be fully put into production and the sales are smooth, it can bring at least three to four hundred thousand taels of silver to the Jinzhou area every year, which is enough to greatly improve the local financial situation. We no longer have to rely entirely on Sanya’s funding to live a tight life.
Liu Shangdao: "Sir, we previously expected to receive four to five thousand people this winter. Now the resettlement capacity is almost saturated. If a large number of people are sent to Jinzhou in the future, there may be problems with the resettlement measures at the village and town levels. ”
The food and other materials prepared by Jinzhou to receive refugees are relatively sufficient, but when so many people come to Jinzhou, they need to solve not only the problem of food, but more importantly, a place to stay to spend the cold winter.
Each village and town builds some new houses every year, which are usually used as grain warehouses. When new immigrants are assigned to the local area for resettlement, they are freed up for new immigrants to live.
However, the number of refugees brought here from the Changshan Islands recently has exceeded the pre-expected number. If the resettlement work cannot be completed locally, the only option is to transfer the refugees to Shandong first and then transport them back to Jinzhou after the spring. Although this can solve the immediate problem, it will cost a lot of money, and the return shipping fee alone is not a small amount.
When Chen Yixin heard this situation, he pondered: "There are at least one or two thousand people on the Changshan Islands, and there is no way to accommodate so many people on the island for the winter... So other infrastructure projects must be put aside first, and housing must be solved first. Question.”
Liu Shang reminded: "Sir, there are actually many empty barracks in Jinzhou..."
Chen Yixin slapped his thigh and said, "Yeah, I've forgotten about this!"
In the past two years, Haihan's garrison in the north was all piled up in Jinzhou, so a large number of barracks were built more than ten miles away from the isthmus defense line. However, last year, the garrison of the special operations group and part of the navy was moved to the Taedong River base in North Korea, so a large number of barracks were vacated. But these barracks were all located within the military restricted area. Chen Yixin didn't think of this solution for a while.
Liu Shangdao: "These vacant barracks should be able to accommodate the people who were transported back, and they will be allocated to places after the spring of next year."
Chen Yixin nodded and said: "I will write a warrant later and you will be responsible for taking over the camp to resettle the people. But even if the places are allocated again in the spring, everyone cannot be idle this winter. You can arrange what you can to make the residents These people in the camp adapt to the local area as soon as possible.”
Liu Shangdao: "Don't worry, sir, I will make arrangements for my humble position."
Chen Yixin was very satisfied with Liu Shang's response. As soon as the topic changed, he talked about something else: "When Operation Snow Steps is over, I will submit an application to the Executive Committee and formally appoint you as the Civil Affairs Officer of Jinzhou District. Do your job well, Mo To disappoint me.”
Liu Shang was overjoyed when he heard this. He had been in Haihan's bureaucracy for several years and naturally understood how big the gap was between temporary appointment and formal appointment. Once promoted to the civil affairs officer of the Jinzhou area, he would be equivalent to a high official. If he followed the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, he would almost have the status of a prefect.
A few years ago, he would have never dared to think that he would be able to reach this level of officialdom. It seems that staying in Sanya was the most correct decision in his life.
Liu Shang quickly stood up, bowed, and sincerely thanked Chen Yixin for his promotion.
Speaking of which, Chen Yixin is really one of his great nobles. When Liu Shang first arrived in Shandong, he was assigned to work under Chen Yixin. It was precisely because his performance in Fushan County was appreciated by Chen Yixin that Chen Yixin later arranged to transfer him to Liaodong. If he hadn't been transferred here, he might still be working as a small propaganda officer in Fushan County at this time.
In this way, his promotion from propaganda officer to local civil affairs officer was all thanks to Chen Yixin. Liu Shang was grateful, but he also knew that Chen Yixin was not too interested in flattery, so he tried his best to control his emotions and just calmly expressed his gratitude to Chen Yixin. Chen Yixin said that he would continue to work for him in the future, and he already regarded himself as Chen Yixin's retainer.
Although Liu Shang's ability was recognized by Chen Yixin, in fact, this appointment was somewhat helpless. The only local official qualified for this position was Liu Shang, and the executive committee had no plans to send anyone from Sanya to serve, so Chen Yixin could only appoint Liu Shang as the local civil affairs officer to share some affairs for himself.
Of course, this appointment is not that simple for Liu Shang. Although it is not easy to be a civil affairs official in an overseas enclave like Jinzhou, and there does not seem to be much money to be made, Liu Shang will not take this lightly. An errand. This means that he has truly entered the ranks of senior officials. Even if he returns to Sanya to report on his duties in the future, he will still be at a level where he can sit and answer questions in Victory Fort.
After leaving Chen Yixin's official residence, Liu Shang did not care about celebrating, so he took Chen Yixin's warrant and took a carriage to the Nanguanling camp, ten miles away from the isthmus defense line, to handle the handover of the camp.
Although Chen Yixin has already nodded in approval of using military camps to temporarily resettle refugees, there are still many details that need to be resolved through consultation between Liu Shang and the military. The food, drink and diarrhea of so many refugees need to be solved, and how to allocate management authority and responsibilities requires some coordination between the Civil Affairs Office under Liu Shang's jurisdiction and the garrison.
Fortunately, he has been dealing with the Haihan Army since he came to the north. He also has many connections in the military. With Chen Yixin's warrant guarantee, no one will embarrass him on this matter.
(End of chapter)