Chapter 2395
A few days later, refugees who fled into Dengzhou from Jinan Prefecture and other places brought the latest news about the war situation. The Qing army has now ended its looting operations in Jinan Prefecture and other places, and the main force has now crossed the river and retreated north. However, because the Qing army looted a large amount of supplies and hundreds of thousands of people in Shandong, it was not easy for the Qing army to return to the outside world with so much loot, and the march was very slow.
The Ming army did not completely sit back and watch the enemy take away the wealth and dolls that belonged to the Ming Dynasty. They tried to block the Qing army by relying on the defense line they had established in Dezhou, but their performance on the battlefield was no better than that of the Qing army. No matter how much it improved when going south, it was still unable to compete head-on with the Qing cavalry in the field.
After several battles, the Ming army, unable to bear the casualties, once again shrank its front line and turned the blocking battle into a defensive battle. However, it was obviously impossible to build a dense enough fence to stop the Qing army simply by relying on multiple city strongholds that were far apart. The defeated troops in various places and the bandit mobs who took the opportunity to cause chaos caused the area that the Qing army had just withdrawn to suffer a second round of looting.
The areas affected by the war have formed several no-man's lands with a radius of hundreds of miles due to the massive loss of population. Social production in these places has completely stopped, and there are no ready-made materials for people to live there. Therefore, even people who are lucky enough to avoid the war have to leave the local area and flee in order to survive. Therefore, after the war came to an end, the number of people fleeing the war zone did not decrease significantly. On the contrary, a large number of people fled from neighboring areas due to the influence of refugees.
If refugees want to return home immediately at this time, they are likely to face months of lack of food and clothing, as well as a completely disordered social environment, which may be even more dangerous than fleeing abroad.
But in any case, the withdrawal of the Qing army is finally good news. After knowing the news, many refugees chose to temporarily stop their escape and wait and see how the situation would develop. Even though Zhaoyuan County no longer provides relief assistance to refugees, there are still many people who want to wait for news closer to their hometowns so that they can return home as soon as possible.
"If we don't find a way to evacuate these refugees, the bark of the trees in Zhaoyuan County will almost be peeled off!" Sun Zhen looked worriedly at the growing refugee area outside the county and couldn't help but sigh.
Gong Shiqi responded: "At present, it seems that if these people are not starved, they will not leave Zhaoyuan County. We do not have extra food to help them, so we should wait and see what happens!"
Neither the Zhaoyuan County Government nor the Haihan Army could provide enough food to relieve the refugees stationed in the local area. Nowadays, not to mention the fish in the small river next to the county seat, even the shrimps, crabs, and snails have been touched cleanly by the hungry refugees. Within a radius of twenty miles of the county seat, as long as people can reach it, there are no bird's nests or rabbit holes.
In the past few days, the military doctors accompanying the team have treated many unlucky people who climbed up trees to dig out bird's nests and broke their arms and legs. In addition, there are also people who ate wild vegetables and got food poisoning, and people who accidentally drowned when fishing in rivers. In short, they appeared just to find food. Injuries and injuries are also increasing with the increase in the number of local refugees.
Sun Zhen had no doubt that if this continued for a few more days, hungry people would definitely take the lead in making trouble. In fact, there are already signs of this. In the past few days, many nearby villages have been robbed by refugees, and in some places people have even died.
At present, these unorganized refugees can only act in scattered directions. Even if they want to rob villages, they often fail because they are weak. But if some people with commanding abilities appear, it won't be too difficult to coerce the people who have lost their minds.
Therefore, Sun Zhen has also increased the frequency of patrols in the refugee areas in recent days, making the refugees realize that although the local government has closed the city gates and does nothing, there are still other armed forces maintaining law and order in Zhaoyuan County, and they want to patrol near the county seat. Those who cause trouble should first consider whether they can defeat the Haihan Army.
But how to drive these refugees who are still waiting to see the situation to Fushan County, Sun and Gong have not thought of a better way at present. If force is to be used to drive away the refugees, they worry that it will be counterproductive and make the already emotionally unstable people fear the consequences of going to Fukuyama County and flee in other directions.
Hundreds of miles away in Fushan County, hundreds of refugees were filing onto more than a dozen large ships docked at the port. These Yugong-class sailing ships are large ships specially used to carry cargo and people. Each ship can carry at least nearly three hundred people. However, when there are more people on board, the endurance at sea will naturally be greatly affected. During the return journey, these ships must complete one or two shore replenishments on the way, otherwise the fresh water and food on board will be in short supply.
Yugong-class sailing ships, which are heavy-duty cargo ships, are rarely sent to the north to perform transportation tasks, because if there is not enough cargo to fill the cabin, the revenue from shipping will inevitably be greatly reduced, and the current scale of sea trade in the north is basically not enough. Board the Yugong-class sailboat. However, this time they came with a full cargo hold, and the ship was loaded with various survival supplies that Fushan County urgently needed. On the way back, they loaded the refugees into the cargo hold and took them back.
This batch of Yugong-class sailing ships arriving at Zhifu Port are all state-owned shipping companies affiliated with Zhoushan Dinghai Port, and the supplies they sent also come from the official treasury of Dinghai Port. The future settlement of these refugees who were picked up will probably be the Zhoushan Islands centered on Dinghaigang.
The appearance of these large ships undoubtedly relieved the refugees who were about to go overseas. Although they still did not know where they would be sent to resettle, seeing these large ships with unified standards at least showed that Haihan was serious. Regarding this matter, and there are no ships of this size in the north, it can also reflect Haihan's strength in maritime transportation from the side. Since Haihan has the national power to build these large ships and has sent them all the way to Shandong to pick up the refugees, there should not be much of a problem in realizing the resettlement conditions that the Haihan people have repeatedly mentioned.
Haihan also deliberately piled the grain and various supplies unloaded from these ships into hills on the dock to show the abundance of supplies.
Compared with Zhoushan Dinghai Port, several colonial ports in Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Penghu have also sent their own fleets. However, due to the distance, it will be a few days late to arrive here. Most of the colonies in Taiwan have labor-intensive industries such as plantations. There is a long-term demand for population. Even if they hand over all the refugees from Shandong, they should be able to absorb it. It is nothing more than what is needed for transportation and resettlement. It just takes a little longer.
Due to many objective conditions, the local expansion of refugee camps has not accelerated much due to the increase in manpower. However, now that transport capacity from other places has been continuously arriving, refugees finally have channels to transfer out in large numbers. Chen Yixin also Not as anxious as before. Haihan's proper handling of the refugee flow also gave the wealthy businessmen and dignitaries temporarily living in Fushan County a new understanding of Haihan's strength. They knew very well that the influx of so many refugees into any part of Shandong would cause extreme consequences. A huge disaster, because no state capital or county can carry and accommodate such a large population alone, but the Haihan people have done it almost perfectly.
Thousands of refugees arrive in Fushan County every day, and are quickly diverted into dozens of refugee camps set up locally under guidance. They will receive rations and shelter to survive, and learn to abide by the various "rules" set by Haihan in the refugee camp. As for whether these refugees choose to sign contracts with Haihan as laborers or voluntarily accept resettlement measures overseas, the wealthy businessmen and powerful people will not mind the methods Haihan uses in the process.
In their view, this was an act of kindness by the Haihan people. They did something that should have been the responsibility of the local government and took a lot of risks to accept these refugees. Just like when they came to Fushan County to seek refuge, they also paid a lot of money to the Haihan people in exchange for their current treatment. It is natural for these people to pay a certain price if they want to rely on Haihan's help to survive.
As for whether the Haihan people's actions would be detrimental to the Ming Dynasty, most people don't think so. If Haihan really wants to harm Ming Dynasty, he doesn't have to do anything. He just needs to sit back and do nothing. It won't take long for refugees from all over the country to start revolts in order to survive. By then, the chaos in Shandong will become more chaotic. When the Haihan people want to do something, the government will be unable to stop them.
Although the invasion of Shandong by the Qing army was a catastrophe, the Haihan people had provided them with good options on how to resolve this crisis. They even had the opportunity to quickly restore themselves in this war through cooperation with Haihan. economic losses.
The chamber of commerce organization proposed by Chen Yixin finally reached a consensus after several rounds of public and private discussions. One day in March, Chen Yixin held a secret gathering in Majiazhuang, gathering wealthy businessmen and dignitaries who were interested in joining the chamber of commerce, and held a simple establishment ceremony.
"The Shanhaihui is a chamber of commerce, but in addition to providing you with business opportunities, it is also your strong backing. If you need any help, you can post news through the Shanhaihui, and we will try our best to help you solve the problems you encounter." Chen Yixin started with a clear statement and pointed out the nature of this special commercial organization. In addition to doing business, this organization can also have many other functions.
Someone asked: "General Chen, if you are short of money, can you also ask the Chamber of Commerce for help?"
Chen Yixin responded without hesitation: "Of course! If you encounter difficulties in turnover, you can ask the Chamber of Commerce for help, and we will provide you with a loan based on your actual situation. Please remember that problems that can be solved with money can be It’s not a problem.”
Everyone here smiled knowingly when they heard this. If they had only heard about the wealth of Haihan Country in the past, then after living in Fushan County for so long, they already have a clearer understanding of it.
Apart from anything else, the infrastructure projects that they could feel immediately upon entering Fushan County were of a level they had never seen elsewhere. The official roads, docks, and markets here were all built to a standard far superior to that of the Ming Dynasty, and the cost of these projects was obviously not something that the local government of the Ming Dynasty could afford.
Those large sailing fleets coming all the way from the south also made them realize that in addition to a powerful naval fleet, Haihan also had strong maritime transportation capabilities. These fleets can transport hundreds of thousands of kilograms of grain from the south at a time, and then transport thousands of people from Zhifu Port. Such transportation capabilities naturally cost a lot of money to build.
Although people like these here are considered wealthy in their respective hometowns, the most they can do is donate some money to build bridges and repair roads in the countryside, or have a few cargo ships running on inland rivers under their names. They are with Haihan in Fushan County. The style is simply worlds apart. Chen Yixin said that problems that can be solved with money are not problems. Even if everyone does not agree with this view, they will not doubt that Haihan people can really achieve this level.
Chen Yixin continued: "Every member of Shanhaihui will be regarded as a partner of our country in the future. You are both a distributor and a supplier. Two-way trade will make it easier for you to make money. In the future, production from various parts of Shandong will They can all be shipped overseas through the local Zhifu Port, and you can also enjoy various products from the south at your doorstep. Countless businessmen in the south have become extremely wealthy and powerful through this kind of trade. I think this situation is also true. Will appear in Shandong soon ”
Zhen Lang, a large landowner in Qingzhou, asked: "I heard that your country's partners in the south can even buy weapons from you. Is this true?"
Chen Yixin nodded slightly and said: "It seems that Boss Zhen is very interested in the news about our country recently! Yes, this is indeed true. We are happy to assist our partners in setting up private armed forces, and can provide one-stop services from weapons and equipment to training into an army. Service. Of course, this special cooperation is not open to everyone. Only those who have in-depth cooperation with our country and have closely related interests can get the opportunity to cooperate in this area. If Boss Zhen is interested, we can communicate in private. .”
Regarding the selection of military partners, Haihan now has relatively strict standards, and no longer just cats and dogs are eligible to participate. This topic is relatively sensitive, and Chen Yixin didn't want to talk about it publicly on this occasion, so he just brushed it off with a few words. Anyone who is really interested in this will naturally approach him in private to inquire about the details.
In fact, most of these powerful people hired martial artists to look after their homes and homes. However, after coming to Fushan County and seeing the style of the Ma's militia, many people, including Zhen Lang, felt envious and took the initiative to form their own private armed forces. thought. However, the Majia Vigilante Group was established according to the organization and standards of the Golden Shield Escort. Its cost and equipment are far beyond the comparison of ordinary militia groups. Without Haihan's support, it would not be possible. Therefore, Zhen Lang also used this opportunity to test Chen Yixin's attitude. See if there is any possibility of cooperation.
(End of chapter)