Chapter 2388
From an objective point of view, this secret operation planned and commanded by Geng Zhongming and carried out by the Hulusa organization was actually very powerful. It found the loopholes that Ming Dynasty and Haihan were bound to have in this special period, and what Hulusa and his group did was The identity disguise is almost seamless. If they hadn't been exposed due to an unexpected incident in Zhaoyuan County, they might not have been noticed even if they crossed the border under the nose of the Haihan Army.
Although Gong Shiqi and Sun Zhen joked that even if this group of people sneaked into Fushan County, they would be screened out in the refugee camp, but in fact they knew in their hearts the risks that would be caused if they really let them enter Fushan County. In fact, it is uncontrollable. But luckily, they were lucky enough to intercept this group of people in Zhaoyuan by mistake, and the Qing army's conspiracy was resolved without much effort.
But what they didn't expect was that this battle would win Haihan a good reputation among the refugee community. The reason is also very clear. After the operation, the Haihan Army promptly displayed the weapons hidden by the gangsters, confirming that the true identity of the gang was not civilians. Moreover, the Haihan Army's arrest operations were very restrained and basically did not affect Chi Yu. This also made the refugees think that these armed personnel's approach of persuading them to go to Fushan County was credible.
It must be pointed out that the restraint shown by the Haihan Army when arresting Hulusha and his gang was not necessarily due to fear of harming innocent people, but because Sun Zhen only had one platoon of men at that time, and it was difficult to We rounded up the enemies who had fled to the refugee settlements, so we basically stopped them and only captured those who were surrounded by the cavalry at that time and then closed the team.
It is really difficult to catch a few people among hundreds of times as many refugees. But if the Haihan Army had enough troops to mobilize at that time, Sun Zhen would not give up the subsequent arrests so easily, and would turn the refugee settlement outside the county town upside down.
After completing the interrogation of Hulusa and others, Sun Zhen asked the propaganda officer to make the true identities of these people public and offered rewards for the capture of others who slipped through the net. Although it is currently impossible to draw a wanted poster, Sun Zhen is convinced that the high reward will make those people unable to hide. Even if they cannot be caught immediately, they will at least be able to actively reduce their contact with other refugees, let alone continue. Executed the original plan.
The Qing army's spies appeared in Zhaoyuan County. This news was undoubtedly a reminder to the fleeing people. They never expected that they had escaped so far across the state, but they still could not escape the Qing army's pursuit. Although this gang of spies have been caught and killed, and it seems that they can no longer cause trouble, God knows if there are other Qing spies lurking in the dark, waiting for opportunities.
Under the conscious guidance and propaganda of Haihan Army, Zhaoyuan County is obviously no longer a safe area, and it seems that we have to leave here and continue eastward. Fushan County, which the Haihan Army has repeatedly promoted in the past few days, seems to be a relatively safe place. Although it seems to be under the control of the foreign army, the Haihan Army, at least there is no more terrifying Qing army there.
In these troubled times, the most important thing is to find a peaceful place to live. Many people don't care whether they can get the treatment claimed by the Haihan people after going to Fushan County. As long as the county waits, the Qing army may really attack one day, and then it will be too late to run away.
Although it was an unexpected incident, the timing of it gave Sun Zhen and his group the opportunity to change the situation. They just saw the opportunity and followed the trend, giving the local refugees the motivation to go to Fushan County.
In Fushan County, a hundred miles away, Chen Yixin and Hao Wanqing were also discussing the telegram from Zhaoyuan County.
"Sun Zhen is really a lucky general! Every time he is assigned a task, he always comes up with something different!" Chen Yixin couldn't help but sigh after reading the telegram sent back by Sun Zhen.
He originally just asked Sun Zhen to go to Zhaoyuan County to set up an outpost to guide refugees, but he didn't expect that within a few days of leaving, Sun Zhen would catch a group of Qing army spies there, and they were all Han Chinese from Shandong. These people sneaked into Fushan County quietly, and the consequences were really disastrous.
Hao Wanqing said: "The top priority is to send people to Zhaoyuan to escort those prisoners back and examine them carefully to confirm whether the Qing army has any secret plans like this!"
Sun Zhen only has one company of troops, and he will have to deal with tens of thousands of refugees later. It is obviously impossible for his side to send out more troops to escort the prisoners, so Fushan County can only send another troops to carry out this task. .
Chen Yixin said: "Then take this opportunity to transport some supplies to Sun Zhen."
Due to space limitations, Sun Zhen's telegram only talked about the capture of the spies, but did not mention that he had received thousands of kilograms of grain assistance from the local government, and that in the process of capturing the Qing army's spies, he also confiscated three carts of grain. The combined harvest of these two transactions was more grain than what they originally brought from Fushan County, which was enough to support their stay in Fushan County for forty to fifty days longer.
Hao Wanqing said: "Although Sun Zhen has arrested a group of people, we are still unable to determine whether there are spies sneaking into the refugee camp. I will go to the refugee camp later to make arrangements. Even if someone does sneak in, We can’t let them cause trouble in the refugee camp. Also, the local troops stationed there may not be enough to cope with the subsequent flow of refugees. I suggest that we bring in more troops from other places, quickly!”
Chen Yixin nodded and said: "Then we have the same idea. I am planning to inform North Korea and send some troops to help."
Haihan's troops stationed in the north are mainly deployed in Jinzhou, Liaodong, Fushan County, Shandong, and the Datong River Base in North Korea. Fushan County has the smallest number of troops stationed there. This time, the infantry battalion led by Sun Zhen was also transferred from North Korea, which was able to stabilize the situation first. But judging from the current direction of the situation, it is obvious that the troops brought by Sun Zhen cannot guarantee the security of Fushan County, and more troops must be added as soon as possible.
Although the situation in Liaodong was a bit tense because Haihan refused the Manchu and Qing ceasefires, Haihan defended the area in a dangerous manner. As long as he defended the isthmus defense line and did not take the initiative to attack, even if the Qing army launched a large-scale offensive, it was unlikely that it would be possible in just a few days. Conquer Jinzhou’s naturally dangerous terrain within a day.
The civil strife in North Korea has basically subsided, and there is currently no need to station a large number of troops there to maintain domestic stability. Instead, some more troops can be mobilized to Fushan County for emergency response.
Of course, just entering without exiting is not enough. Fushan County’s carrying capacity is limited, and refugees must be transported out to other places at the same time as Shandong refugees arrive to achieve off-site resettlement.
At present, dozens of civilian ships from Jinzhou and North Korea have gathered at Zhifu Port. Together with local ships of all sizes that can go to sea, there are about a hundred sailboats that can take on the task of transporting refugees to the south. However, this kind of transportation capacity seems to be a lot, but for the large number of refugees that are about to appear in Fushan County, there will still be insufficient transportation capacity. Chen Yixin said: "Shi Diwen sent a telegram. The first batch of ships left Dinghai Port and headed north yesterday. There are about thirty ships. More ships will be dispatched from Fujian, Penghu, Taiwan and other places in the future. , form a fleet and come to Shandong. In addition, ships from the south will also bring us the food, medicine, tents and other supplies we need. We should be fine after another ten days and a half. "
Hao Wanqing said with a smile: "I believe that when everyone heard the news that there were a large number of refugees in Shandong, they took action overnight!"
"Yes, we all want to come here earlier so we can draw more people away!" Chen Yixin also agreed with a smile.
Of course, the overseas colonies like Haihan and others are not doing good deeds to help refugees when they take such active actions. All colonies under Haihan's rule have a common need, which is population, which is the real scarce resource for Haihan.
Compared with ethnic groups from other countries and regions, it is undoubtedly the least difficult for Han people from the Ming Dynasty to integrate into Haihan. Therefore, the main channel for Haihan to obtain population has always been to obtain immigrants from the Ming Dynasty through various channels. However, in peacetime, not so many people are willing to leave their hometowns and settle overseas. The number of immigrants that can be collected is far less than the development needs of Shanghai. The cost of attracting talents in specific fields or with special skills to choose to immigrate is even higher. high.
The lowest-cost way to obtain immigrants is undoubtedly war refugees. Whether it was the large number of Annan refugees obtained from the Annan Civil War in the early days or the Shandong and Liaodong refugees later obtained from the north of the Ming Dynasty, they were all examples of such operations.
The vast majority of these refugees have taken root in Haihan and contributed to the rapid rise of Haihan. However, the industry and agriculture that Haihan focuses on are labor-intensive industries, and there is a huge gap in the labor force required. There will almost never be enough labor. In particular, various overseas colonies that started late require a large amount of labor to complete early infrastructure, farmland and other major projects, and their thirst for population far exceeds that of Haihan itself.
Generally speaking, these Haihan colonies located in the surrounding areas of the Ming Dynasty used the Eight Immortals to cross the sea as a means of introducing immigrants. Each showed their magical powers and used various preferential treatments to attract the people of the Ming Dynasty to immigrate and settle there. However, once they encounter an ultra-low-cost source of population such as war refugees, each colony will not hesitate to fight for it.
For example, when North Korea was invaded by the Qing army the year before last, many Haihan ships quietly rushed to the Datong River and took away many Korean refugees from the local area. The North Korean court was not unaware of this, but it was just that it was seeking help from Haihan and did not dare to argue with Haihan on these trivial issues, so it could only pretend to be ignorant.
In recent years, the Haihan Army has continuously carried out raids on the offshore areas of the Liaodong Peninsula. During this period, a large number of people were captured from the areas occupied by the Qing Dynasty. Some of these people later flowed into the southern colonies through various channels.
Part of this is relocation organized by civil affairs agencies to ensure that the population ratio in each place is not imbalanced. The other part is the population that each colony obtained directly from the northern colonies through resource exchange. Both the military and the colonies in the north and south can get what they need.
This time, the situation followed the old practice. After receiving the news, each colony organized its own transportation capacity to Zhifu Port, and the food and other living supplies carried on these ships were used to replace the resources of the refugees.
After these materials arrive in Shandong, they will be used as replacements and placed in local refugee camps to ensure the smooth operation of Shandong's refugee resettlement system. Sufficient material supplies will also convince the refugees that the overseas resettlement plan promised to them by Haihan officials is a credible and feasible option, so that the refugees can calmly accept the arrangement of leaving Shandong and settling in unknown areas.
Of course, not everyone will be happy to accept such a unilateral arrangement. Many refugees just want a chance to survive in Fushan County and return to their hometowns after the situation calms down. As for selling this life to Haihan and settling in the distant Haihan country, most of them would not agree with this approach.
Therefore, the propaganda information received by the refugees after arriving in Fushan County is particularly important. Haihan must convince these panicked people that the only way out that can guarantee their personal safety is to take the boat provided by Haihan. Go and settle in the "promised land" overseas.
The propaganda methods used during this period, in addition to various eye-catching slogans outdoors, also included content that the propaganda officers kept repeating all the time, such as the current crisis of the Ming Dynasty, the generous immigrants of Haihan The treatment, as well as the testimonials of the old immigrants who have made a fortune in Haihan, continue to encourage the emotions of the refugees, making them convinced that Haihan, which is more powerful and rich than the Ming Dynasty, can truly provide them with the prospect of a better life. location.
As for the effectiveness of these publicity methods, it largely depends on the skill of the operator. Chen Yixin specifically transferred Liu Shang back to Shandong from Jinzhou because of his experience and ability in this field.
And Liu Shang did not disappoint him. After arriving in Fushan County, he immediately devoted himself to the expansion project of the refugee camp. While working as a supervisor, he also trained local publicity officers and taught them how to prescribe the right medicine for possible problems among the refugee groups. various issues are properly handled.
And these skills are not even what Liu Shang learned when he was trained in Sanya, but the experience he accumulated after working in several northern colonies for several years. His professional level has long surpassed what he learned in Sanya. Those civil affairs officials he taught classes with. Coupled with Shanghai's already very mature immigration operation system, there will not be many refugees who will explicitly oppose the immigration plan for overseas resettlement.
The few refugees who are still unwilling to be resettled overseas can only earn rations for themselves by working. Once the three-year and five-year miner's contract is signed, they are immediately sent to a nearby copper mine to work as a human excavator. . There are Haihan troops stationed in the area, so even if you want to escape in the future, it will not be that easy.
(End of chapter)