1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 590 "Labor"

On April 4, Guo Quan and his party arrived in Jinhua City in three galleys. At the pier, they met a group of the first group of residents who were about to be exiled to Jindao.

"Hey, why are you still dragging your family with you! What did you do in Hanzhou?" Guo Quan got off the boat, and suddenly found that there was a man with a woman next to him, and two other people. A child, he couldn't help asking the village soldiers in charge of escorting in surprise.

"I heard that he killed someone in the local area." The village soldier glanced over there, with a bit of sympathy in his eyes, "The man's daughter-in-law was molested by some new immigrants from the nearby settlement farm in the village. The man chopped people up with a knife, killed one and injured two, and was sentenced to exile on Weiyuan Island for ten years. The Dali Temple officials in Jinhua looked at him pitifully, so they simply sent him to Jindao (present-day Lixi of Papua New Guinea) Er Island), the sentence may be halved as appropriate.”

"Is this local Dali Temple official in Hanzhou corrupt and perverting the law?" Guo Quan was also indignant, "My daughter-in-law has been bullied, so naturally she has to rise up and resist, how can she be sentenced to punishment and exile?"

"Hehe, that man didn't have to kill people." The village soldier said with a smile: "When those bastard new immigrants saw that man came out with a knife, they immediately gave up and didn't dare to tease his wife anymore. Good job Undead, an incomprehensible new immigrant actually said, a barbarian woman (Johore woman), why bother to go to war, just give some money to sleep for a night. As a result, the man became angry immediately, and cut the person with a knife , Then became fierce, and continued to kill the rest of the people. Fortunately, those guys ran fast, but two more people were chopped, and the rest escaped."

"Insult to wives and daughters, they deserve to be hacked!" Guo Quan said bitterly: "Those new immigrants have no rules at all. Your Majesty has issued an edict several times. In this country, all people are equal, and all people are equal, regardless of high or low."

"Those newly arrived immigrants ate their stomachs for a few days, and seeing the driven natives (natives) in the farms and mines everywhere, they feel that they are also masters." The village soldier echoed: "After they live a few years and distribute it to local girls or Western barbarians, they will know how precious their own daughter-in-law is."

The people in the country mentioned by the two of them naturally ignored the many natives (aboriginals) who were forced into labor, and only counted those immigrants who were transferred from Daming, Annan, North Korea, and Japan. Of course, the native daughters or Persian or Western female slaves of Qi people were also recognized as official residents of Qi along with their husbands.

Guo Quan asked his deputy to take the dozens of native oarsmen on board to the station outside Jinhua City, ordering them not to run around at will, but to take a rest for two days, and wait for him to ask the adults in the city for instructions before making a decision on what to do next.

The native oarsmen cheered after hearing this, and happily followed Guo Quan's deputy to the camp.Resting for two days means that these oarsmen (and sometimes sailors) who are bound to the ship all year round can relax completely, drink the honey wine (sugar cane wine) of the Hanzhou people, eat delicious meals, and lie in the cool water. In the wooden house, and then..., there seems to be nothing left.

After Guo Quan returned to Yu Maohui, the deputy commander of Jinhua, he was told that three days later, he would drive two small galleys and carry more than a hundred soldiers from the countryside along the Jinhua River (the Macomb River that flows through Laicheng City in Papua New Guinea today). Go up to dozens of kilometers upstream to search for possible indigenous tribes, and then capture as many of them as possible to provide corresponding labor supplements for the development of the Jindao mining area.

Since the establishment of the Jinhua area seven or eight years ago, for the sake of local security, it has conscripted township soldiers several times to exterminate the nearby indigenous tribes.When encountering ferocious and savage cannibal tribes, they are usually slaughtered to avoid future troubles.However, with the shortage of labor force for local development, Jinhua City began to take gentle measures against some docile tribes, arresting them, and doing logging, farming, and other labor-intensive tasks for the local area.Over the past few years, more than 2000 aborigines have accumulated in this area.

But to mine in Jindao, it needs thousands of people.If all the local aborigines were sent there, the officials in charge of Jinhua would be very reluctant, and it would affect the development of various affairs in the entire Jinhua area.

However, the Ministry of Industry and the Weiyuan District can only provide [-]% of the labor required for the mining of Jindao. As for the remaining labor gap, it is natural that the nearby Jinhua District will provide it.

Local officials in Jinhua scolded this arrangement in their hearts.There are only more than 4000 people in our entire Jinhua area. We have to separate some immigrants to Jindao for colonization and send township soldiers to manage them. Now we have to bear the coolies of hundreds or even thousands of people. After development, do we still need to develop the people's livelihood economy?

But complaints are complaints, and the orders from above must be implemented, otherwise, the above will give local officials a bad grade in the performance evaluation, and maybe they will be promoted in the year of the monkey.

The coastal areas near Jinhua have been raided several times by local soldiers, so there must be very few hidden indigenous tribes.Therefore, Yu Maohui, the deputy commander in charge of the collection of "labourers", set his mind on both sides of the upper reaches of the Jinhua River.

Although the Jinhua River is shallow and fast, it is not suitable for large ships to pass through, but some galleys of about [-] to [-] tons can barely travel tens of kilometers. If you are lucky, you can find several indigenous tribes along the river. , Get some people back.

On April 4, Jinhua City recruited more than 29 soldiers from nearby towns, and they took two small paddle boats and headed inland along the Jinhua River.

Although Wu Yang was holding a musket in his arms, his right hand still subconsciously tightened the Taidao under his ribs to ensure that he could pull it out at any time in case of danger. Looking at the green mountains on both sides of the river, he couldn't help but feel the connection between this place and Japan. Compare with your hometown.Compared to Japan, this place is still too remote. They have been walking along the river for a day and have not seen any signs of human activities.

Takehiro, originally a wandering Japanese warrior, Takei Yoji.He was conscripted by Qi people on Ryukyu Island, and first served as a garrison soldier on Hanxing Island to maintain local order.Later, when the Qi people fought against the natives in the Kingdom of Sulu, he was transferred to Hele Island (now Jolo Island, Philippines) along with several Japanese soldiers, and led more than two hundred mercenaries recruited from Japan. The forces of Sulu Sultan who invaded the island launched a tug-of-war.

In July last year, the people of Qi organized more than 400 armed forces, joined forces with the Suludong King forces, carried several artillery pieces, and landed on the nearby Basilan Island under the cover of four armed merchant ships to attack and weaken the nearby Majindanao Sultanate.

In this battle, they defeated more than [-] native troops. After the artillery blasted the city gate, the troops plundered for several days, and the last fire burned the native royal city.During the battle, because he led a team of pigs to rush forward, he fell into the siege of the natives, and his right shoulder was pierced by the natives with a wooden spear. Fortunately, the medical officer with the army rescued him in time and saved his life.

After the war, his merits were assessed, and because of his bravery in battle, he was granted formal national status by the Qi people and promoted to the captain of the township squadron.At the beginning of this year, he came to Jinhua City with the immigrant fleet from Qi State, settled here, and worked in the military preparation department of the place, responsible for recruiting and training local soldiers.

This time, under the command of the commanding envoy, he led more than a hundred township soldiers conscripted from Jinhua City and several nearby towns to go deep into the inland to arrest the natives.Although the Commander did not give him a number target, he knew that the Jindao mining area had huge reserves of copper and gold, so the required "labor" would also be huge.

Immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, Japan, and North Korea and Annan who came from thousands of miles away will naturally not be easily consumed in the harsh mining environment.The natives of Timor Island have consumed too much in recent years, and they can no longer withdraw too much.In this way, only by capturing more local aborigines can we meet the labor needs of that mining area and contribute to the rapid development of our Daqi Kingdom.

"Lord Wu, there seems to be smoke in the mountains on the right side of the bank!" Suddenly, a village soldier at the bow who carefully observed the situation on both sides of the strait shouted loudly.

"Huh?" Wu Yang hurriedly looked towards the mountains on the right side of the ship.

"My lord, that doesn't look like fog...it should be fireworks." Heizaburo said beside him.

Heizaburo is a Japanese-born township captain, formerly known as Hirai Jusaburo, who also served in Hanxing Island, but he came to settle in Jinhua City a year earlier than Wu Yang.

"Let the ship find a place to dock!" Wu Yang supported the side of the ship and stood up with a smile on his face. "We should go down and exercise our muscles."

On the evening of May 5, more than 1 Jinhua urban and rural soldiers landed on the east bank of the river and raided the camp of the indigenous tribes hundreds of meters away from the bank, killing and injuring more than 130 people and capturing [-] five indigenous people.

The accompanying two galleys brought all the captives back to Jinhua City. Under the leadership of Wu Yang, the township soldiers led the captives to lead the way, and continued to go deep into the northeast of the valley for several kilometers. They found another indigenous tribe and harvested more than 70 people.Afterwards, the township soldiers returned to the Jinhua River, tied up all the captured natives with ropes, and circled them together.

When camping by the river at night, Wu Yang saw that the soldiers from the village looked very happy, sitting around the campfire, eating canned food and grilled fish, without any of the high morale they had when they set off from Jinhua City.He took out the jug and took a sip, he couldn't help being a little funny about it.

The reason why the township soldiers behaved like this was mainly because they did not get rich captures when they attacked the two indigenous tribes.You must know that the township soldiers do not receive military pay. Apart from a small amount of money or in-kind subsidies from the superiors during the mission, they have no income.Therefore, they desperately hoped that when they attacked the indigenous tribes, they could seize some gold, silver, or jade.Just like the other batch of soldiers on duty who found Jindao a few months ago, almost everyone brought back one or two pieces of gold, which really made a windfall.

As for the indigenous tribes that have been destroyed in the past two days, there are almost no valuable and decent things, which can arouse the interest of the villagers, which inevitably makes everyone a little disappointed.

Wu Yang's heart was also full of disappointment, but his inner disappointment was not because he hadn't been captured, but because he seemed less interested in the current battle that was almost without suspense.Although following the Qi people to attack the Luzon natives before, the battle was extremely easy, but at any rate, the opponent also had a small amount of firearms and a lot of iron swords, and the fight also meant that the two armies were facing each other.

However, the natives on Weiyuan Island were far behind. Not to mention they didn't have any firearms, not even iron knives. All they held were wooden spears and stones. , not much lethality at all.During the two-day battle, more than [-] natives were killed, wounded, and captured. Only one unlucky village soldier was stabbed in the neck by a native's wooden spear, and unfortunately died in battle. Five others were slightly injured, so the loss was minimal.

I heard that my Daqi military force is helping the Ming Kingdom to fight against the Jurchens in the north. Tens of thousands of troops have been dispatched, and the battlefield is hundreds of thousands of miles away. That is the grand scene of the war. Thinking about it, I feel Excited and exciting.If you can participate in this kind of war, then you will live up to your samurai status.

I heard that my Daqi military department is going to recruit a marine company on Weiyuan Island, and I don’t know if I can be selected. Even if I can’t be a non-commissioned officer, then I can become an ordinary marine soldier to fight for our Daqi on the battlefield and open up borders. It is also a great honor for him to expand the soil.

It took more than 20 days for the township troops in the Jinhua area to go up the river for tens of kilometers, sweeping up six indigenous tribes on both sides of the river bank, killing and injuring more than 520 people, and capturing more than [-] indigenous people.Considering that the Jinhua River went upstream, the water flow became more and more turbulent, and it was extremely difficult for ships to travel, so Wu Yang gave up continuing the conquest and led the township soldiers back to Jinhua City.

At this time, Jinhua City presents a cheerful and joyful atmosphere.After looking for someone to ask, I found out that at the beginning of May, the king of Qi State married the princess of Ming Dynasty, and the mainland of Hanzhou and various overseas territories celebrated this celebration.

Of course, ordinary people may not be happy and congratulate the king of Qi's marriage to a daughter-in-law.Gein, for this reason, the Qi cabinet ordered the local civil affairs departments to distribute a certain amount of daily necessities such as rice, flour, cloth, oil, etc. for free to all the people.Although the number is not large, it is given by the state for free after all.As far as this is concerned, the people of the country sincerely wish the king to marry every day and receive concubines every day.

The free cloth distributed to each resident is only three feet, which can barely make a set of clothes for the children in the family. If you want to cut a set of clothes for adults, you have to spend your own money and go to the department store in the city to pull a few more feet of cloth. .However, at present, more and more cloths are being shipped from Weihai (now Cairns, Australia), and the variety of designs and colors has also increased a lot compared to a few years ago.

With the rapid development of the cotton spinning industry in Qi State in recent years, not only the sailcloth used in shipbuilding has reached complete self-sufficiency, but also the cloth needed by more than 20 people in the country is also fully guaranteed, and a large amount of surplus is exported to Nanyang and Ryukyu. , Japan and other regions.

And all of this, in addition to the hard work of more than [-] people in the eastern part of Hanzhou, there are also countless natives (aboriginal) blood and sweat permeated in it.

(End of this chapter)