Chapter 2399
Hundreds of refugees were blocked in front of the checkpoints set up by Haihan's army. They had to accept the resettlement method provided by Haihan before they could be allowed to enter Fushan County. After being allowed to pass through the checkpoint, every hundred refugees were organized into a team, and several Haihan soldiers took them to designated refugee camps for resettlement.
Upon seeing this, Huang Qu asked the officer accompanying him to visit Haihan: "Although there are not many official roads into Fushan County, what if these refugees bypass the checkpoint and enter Fushan County from other places?"
The officer responded: "Refugees who enter Fushan County without permission will not receive any assistance from us locally, and once they are discovered, we will arrest them directly, and then these people will no longer be able to receive any assistance." Normal placement treatment.”
Huang Qu said: "Even so, it shouldn't be possible to prevent someone from trying to enter Fushan County using this method, right?"
The officer admitted frankly: "Indeed, as Mr. Huang said, although we will try our best to inform the refugees not to try to enter Fushan County on their own, there will always be some people who want to try it with a sense of luck. After all, they still lack the rescue measures provided by our country. Trust, this is one of the reasons why we asked Mr. Huang to help.”
Huang Quxin wished that if he had known that the Haihan people had such strict control over the inflow of refugees, why would he have bothered with Zhang Pucheng? In the past month or so, every time he entered and left Zhifu Island, he had already owed the Haihan people two favors. You have to be shameless and ask for a chance to repent. The more Huang Qu thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt. As for the fate and whereabouts of these refugees, he didn't really care. As long as there was no chaos in Fushan County, it didn't matter where these refugees ended up.
As for why the Haihan people took in these refugees and transported them overseas for resettlement, Huang Qu could roughly think of it, but he could no longer care about that much. Keeping his job was the most important thing now. Besides, not even the imperial court can stop what Haihan wants to do, so how can he always interfere with his little efforts?
Huang Qu watched for a while and roughly understood the operation process of Haihan Army at the checkpoint, so he took the initiative to ask: "How can I help?"
What Huang Qu can do is naturally play the role of a puppet cheering for Haihan here. Haihan even specially arranged a group of soldiers dressed as Ming soldiers to support him. Of course, these people were not the real Ming army, but the militia of Majiazhuang. Of course, the people they took orders from were not Huang Qu. . However, with such a group of Ming troops stationed at the checkpoint and then implementing the refugee admission regulations formulated by Haihan according to the script, the voices of doubts on the scene were much quieter.
The vast majority of refugees believe that Fushan County is still the territory of the Ming Dynasty, so many people do not accept the measures taken by the Haihan army to set up checkpoints here to prevent them from entering Fushan County. However, now that it is the Ming army to implement this measure, the people The acceptance rate is obviously much higher.
This can save Haihan a lot of trouble and make the process of refugees entering Fushan County and accepting resettlement smoother. Although Huang Qu was submissive in front of the Haihan people, he quickly got into the role when dealing with these ordinary people. He ordered to grab a few thorn heads from the crowd outside the checkpoint, pressed them to the ground and rewarded them with twenty marks each. The riding whip made these people moan incessantly, and the scene suddenly became much quieter.
"We can't just reason with these people. We have to take action when it's time to do so. Many people only accept this kind of discipline. As long as they arrest some people from time to time to scare the monkeys." Seeing the obvious results after taking action, Huang Qu also tolerated it. He couldn't help but brag about himself.
Although Huang Qu's methods are a bit extreme, they can indeed produce good results in the current environment. In troubled times, too many people are willing to give up their bottom line as a human being in order to survive. If there are no strong measures to restrict and warn refugees, it will indeed be easy to cause chaos. After all, Haihan is an outsider. Although he has relatively strong control over Fushan County, his influence on foreign refugees is far less useful than Huang Qu's identity. On behalf of the Ming government, he imposed punishment on these refugees. Basically, no one dared to resist, and the effect was indeed more obvious.
Compared with the almost chaotic official road checkpoints, the refugee camps set up in Fushan County are obviously much more orderly. According to the plan formulated by the Haihan Civil Affairs Department, the upper limit of the number of people admitted to each refugee camp is about 500, so as to prevent a single refugee camp from becoming too large and getting out of control.
The several refugee camps closer to Majiazhuang were all built in the early years, and the buildings and living facilities are relatively complete. If it were not for the specially built fences on the outside to separate them from the outside world, it would be difficult to think that this place was hosting refugees. of institutions.
Of course, a refugee camp with better environmental conditions like this will not receive all refugees equally. Most of the refugees who can be sent to stay here temporarily have gone through preliminary screening and belong to people with better conditions, such as scholars and craftsmen. , or small businessmen, small landowners with a certain net worth, etc. Although these people cannot stay in local inns like Zhen Lang and others, they are high-quality immigrants that Haihan wants to win over, so naturally they must be provided with slightly better temporary living conditions.
Zhang Pucheng's first stop when he inspected the immigration camp was such a place. Liu Shang had worked in this refugee camp for a period of time when he was still working as a propaganda officer in Fushan County, so he acted as a guide and introduced Zhang Pucheng The situation here makes it a perfect fit.
"Master Zhang, please take a look. The barracks in this refugee camp were renovated in the early years. They are all designed and built according to the standards of Haihan Army barracks. On average, each barrack can accommodate about twenty people." Liu Shang introduced to Zhang Pucheng while leading the way. The situation in this refugee camp: "The people living here now are the third batch this year."
Liu Shang did not say clearly where the first two batches of refugees went, but Zhang Pucheng had already thought of the answer. Since they are eligible to stay in refugee camps with better conditions, these people must also be immigrants who have been given priority by Haihan. They should have left Shandong on a sailboat a few days ago.
After Zhang Pucheng knew that these people had gone out, it would be difficult for them to come back. Even if they could return to Shandong, they would probably no longer be Mingren. Just like Liu Shang, although he was born in the Ming Dynasty, he has now become an official of the Haihan Kingdom, and his status naturally no longer belongs to the citizens of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhang Pucheng realized that while Haihan was absorbing refugees on a large scale, they were also segmenting the refugee groups, screening out high-value groups to provide better treatment, and arranging for them to leave Daming at a faster speed. These high-quality populations are forced to become Haihan citizens, and the strengths of the two countries will also change in this special environment. Zhang Pucheng even thought that the rapid rise of the little-known Haihan Kingdom in the south might be due to this method of sucking blood from the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, he must not express his thoughts in front of Haihan officials. Not only that, he also had to follow Liu Shang's words and praise Haihan from time to time for spending money and efforts to save people who were suffering from hunger and cold. Shandong refugees in China.
What kind of person is Liu Shang? He is still unmoved by these compliments. He knows very well why his superiors gave people like Zhang Pucheng a second chance. If these local officials cannot deal with the refugee crisis, If they contribute to Haihan, then they have no actual value to Haihan. The situation here has almost been introduced, and it's time for him to do his part. Liu Shangdao: "Mr. Zhang, the people resettled in this refugee camp are relatively reasonable and can understand the various difficulties of the government. If you can come forward to reason with these people and persuade them to accept our arrangements, maybe they will be very happy. Happy to accept your suggestions.”
Whether these refugees are willing to accept Zhang Pucheng's suggestion is not the most important. The key is that Haihan should let these people understand that they can no longer expect the Ming government to provide rescue. If they want to live well, they can only accept Haihan's arrangement and leave Shandong. There is a way to settle overseas.
Zhang Pucheng responded quickly: "This is why I am here, and I would like to ask Mr. Liu to make arrangements for me."
Liu Shang nodded, quite satisfied with Zhang Pucheng's attitude, and immediately ordered people to notify the people in the refugee camp to gather. Someone was also asked to push a four-wheeled flatbed truck over so that Zhang Pucheng could stand higher when he spoke and the refugees could see more clearly.
Not long after, hundreds of refugees gathered together. Liu Shangxian stood on the cart, raised the tin trumpet in front of him, and said to everyone: "Dear fellow villagers, today Zhang Zhixian of this county is here to visit you, and I would like to say something to you by the way. The next arrangements, the issues that everyone is most concerned about, will be discussed by Zhang Zhixian later, so be sure to listen carefully and don’t get distracted!”
After Liu Shang finished speaking a few words, he got off the cart and handed the tin trumpet to Zhang Pucheng: "Use this, make the sound louder! Say what you should say, and don't say what you shouldn't!"
Zhang Pucheng took the tin horn with both hands and climbed onto the cart, but his mind was thinking about what should be said and what should not be said.
"Dear fellow citizens, I am Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan County. The place where you are currently is my jurisdiction." After Zhang Pucheng calmed down for a while, he began his speech.
"I feel ashamed to say that this time Shandong was hit by war, and countless people were forced to leave their homes to escape the war. However, due to the poor resources, we in Fushan County really have nothing to contribute. And with the size of one county here, it is difficult to rescue hundreds of thousands of people. There are tens of thousands of refugees, so I have to ask Haihan Kingdom to help the people. However, Haihan Kingdom is far away from Shandong, and the supplies they brought from the south to Shandong are still unable to save so many people, so they can only save so many people. Arrange for some people to take boats to settle in the areas under the jurisdiction of Haihan State, so as to ensure that those who are rescued can survive well. ”
"Although Haihan Kingdom is trying its best to save people, how many people can be saved in the end depends on whether you are willing to cooperate with Haihan's arrangements. I know that it is extremely difficult for you to leave Shandong and go overseas, but if If you don't leave, as more and more refugees flood into this county, one day it will exceed the county's capacity, and you will not be able to leave even if you want to. Of course, all of you who fled all the way to Fushan County are just trying to survive. Go on, I can tell you frankly that accepting Haihan’s arrangement and settling overseas is the best choice to ensure that you can live well!”
Zhang Pucheng didn't understand what could and couldn't be said, so he cautiously adopted a propaganda approach similar to Haihan's to persuade these refugees to accept immigration arrangements.
In fact, regardless of their subjective wishes, they will be arranged to be shipped away later. However, if Zhang Pucheng's speech can reduce their resistance to immigration, then it will not be in vain.
This was the first time these refugees had seen local officials come forward after arriving in Fushan County. Naturally, they were very concerned about the government's attitude and hoped that the government would give other options. However, Zhang Pucheng's speech clearly broke their expectations. He made it clear that the local government was unable to rescue the refugees and could only leave the matter to Haihan. And settling overseas seems to be the only way left for them.
Seeing that Zhang Pucheng's speech had come to an end, Liu Shang took over and said loudly: "If you still have any questions about the current situation, you can also raise your hands and you can ask questions after Mr. Zhang is selected."
As soon as he finished speaking, several people raised their hands. Liu Shang nodded towards Zhang Pucheng, indicating that he could do as he said. Zhang Pucheng thought that the Haihan people really had many connections, and he would use this method to dispel the refugees' doubts. It seemed that he was really going to maximize his role.
At that moment, Zhang Pucheng randomly named someone, and the person asked loudly: "May I ask the county magistrate, all the refugee relief matters have been handed over to Haihan State, does the imperial court not care about the life and death of us people?"
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This question is undoubtedly extremely sharp. Zhang Pucheng said: "How could the imperial court not care about the life and death of the people? It's just that the war in Shandong is not over yet, and the imperial court's energy is focused on fighting the Qing army and cannot take care of refugee relief, so it entrusts Haihan to come." Take charge of this matter. Everyone, the rescue measures provided by Haihan Kingdom are actually no different from those of the imperial court. They just need to send you to settle overseas first. You can still try to come back when the situation is peaceful. "
Zhang Pucheng's words were already coaxing and deceiving. Immigrants who went to Haihan did have a chance to come back in the future, but only a very small number of people had such conditions. Not everyone could come back if they wanted to. However, as a member of the government, he made such a statement in public, so no one would question the authenticity of his words.
His statement indeed immediately dispelled some people's doubts. Many people did not want to accept Haihan's immigration arrangements because they were worried that they would never have the chance to return to their homeland after leaving. But since the magistrate promised that he could come back in the future, it seems that There's nothing to worry about.
(End of chapter)