The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 161 Zhenzhou

In September, autumn is getting thicker and the outside temperature has begun to gradually drop. People who feel the slightest chill have to add a few layers of clothing to adapt to the low temperature weather in the morning and evening.

In the vast wilderness of Zhenzhou, farmers have also begun to enter the busy harvest season. Thanks to God, the weather has been smooth this year. There was no frost during the spring plowing season, and there were no frequent rains in the summer. Now that autumn has arrived, the fruits of half a year's hard work can finally be harvested.

Compared with the peaceful and joyful fields, the railway construction site in Chunhua Town, Shuangchengzi County (today’s Gallio Enzi Town, Russia) seemed a bit bloody and violent.

Shunji Otake, a ronin from Osaka, stepped on the back of a North Korean coolie. At the signal of a North Ming supervisor, he raised his long knife high with both hands and exerted slight strength on his waist and abdomen, and looked at the crowd. Amid the exclamations, he raised his knife and cut off the coolie's head with one blow. The big head instantly rolled to the ground, and the bright red blood soaked into the soft soil, making it particularly dazzling.

After killing a coolie, Otake Shunji rubbed the blood stained on the long knife on the corpse, then turned his head and looked at the other Korean coolies paralyzed on the ground. His eyes were full of bloodthirsty light, and he was horrified. Those people became incontinent and screamed again and again.

"Didn't you think about this outcome when you were destroying materials at the construction site and planning to escape? Jiejie..., now that death is imminent, you know how to be afraid?" Otake Shunji said with a sinister smile.

Three days ago, because they could not bear the heavy work at the railway construction site, more than a dozen coolies from North Korea took advantage of their night rest to light a fire in a tent where materials were piled at the construction site, and then took advantage of the chaos to sneak out of the camp and make some identification. After knowing the direction, he ran away to the west.

As long as he can reach the realm of Da Qin, he can escape from the sea of ​​suffering and avoid the miserable life of being continuously squeezed and tortured. Maybe, in order to show the divine grace of the Celestial Empire, the Qin officials inside the border wall would comfort them and organize them into garrisons. Each person would be assigned thirty acres of land and become common people of the Qin Dynasty.

But who knew that in the early morning of the next day, the supervisor at the railway construction site learned that a coolie had escaped and immediately reported it to the local government and the Ming army stationed there.

The Ming army immediately sent out several teams of cavalry with dogs to pursue the Korean coolies in the direction in which they fled.

Obviously, although the two-legged Korean coolies began to flee in the middle of the night, they were ultimately unable to escape the pursuit of the four-legged cavalry. Two days later, after a search, the Ming Army cavalry team found escaped Korean coolies in a mountain forest. After killing four of them on the spot, they successfully captured most of the escaped people and escorted them all back to the railway construction site.

The engineering and technical personnel of Qi State in charge of railway construction did not complain about this. Railway construction is inherently a hard job. During the period of railway construction in Hanzhou, Nanyang natives often escaped and were caught and hoisted. Just get up and teach him a lesson.

But who would have thought that the supervisors and managers in Beiming would impose capital punishment on these North Korean coolies who destroyed the construction sites and fled, as a warning to all coolies on the railway construction sites.

The Japanese ronin, who served as the engineering escort team, were the executioners of this execution.

Damn it, several ferocious Japanese ronin, like killing chickens, knocked the captured Korean coolies to the ground and beheaded them one by one on the construction site. The blood was stained red, not only making all the coolies silent, but also on the construction site. Several North Korean officials who were watching the execution turned pale with fear.

After seeing such a bloody scene, the engineering and technical personnel of Qi State did not change their colors in horror, but they still did not eat anything for a whole day.

Previously, there were incidents of coolies escaping from mines, railway construction sites, and even large-scale colonial farms under government control in Beiming. However, after they were captured, they were usually lightly punished and then continued to be used. After all, in Beiming, a country with a small population, any labor force is extremely precious and cannot be wasted casually.

However, since the beginning of spring, Beiming suddenly decided to build the railway to Funingbao (now Suifenhe City) in the border area of ​​Qin and Ming Dynasties, and ordered that it must be completed by June next year.

Obviously, in order to strengthen the control of the border areas and to deal with possible military threats from the Qin State, Beiming directly extended the planned Shuangzhen Railway northward to the construction route of Boli, and directly changed the direction and prepared to build it first. A branch line leads to Funing.

I, the Ming Dynasty, will probably not be able to compete with your Qin State for manpower and consumption, but I can definitely use the convenient railway lines to maximize my internal advantages. No matter which direction your Qin State attacks from, I can use the railway to quickly The limited military strength will be transferred to form a local strength advantage. As long as they survive the first wave of Qin's offensive and stabilize the front, they will be able to receive a steady stream of military assistance from Qi.

With national danger and external military threats at stake, everything must give way, including the construction of the Zhenzhou-Boli Railway, which has great prospects and huge economic benefits.

Therefore, in this urgent situation, North Ming Dynasty not only required extensive collection of corvee services in villages, villages, towns, and towns along the railway line to provide necessary construction manpower, but also directly controlled North Hamgyong Province, Gyeongsang Province, Jeolla Province, and North Korea from the North Ming Dynasty. A large number of civilians from Chungcheong Province and other places were recruited as coolies and came to Zhenzhou to participate in the construction of this armament railway.

Well, you Korean coolies don't want to work hard and share the worries of the country, but you want to escape from labor on the construction site and escape into the territory of Qin. This is nothing less than an act of rebellion.

In this case, don't blame us for being ruthless and killing people to serve as a warning to others.

Beiming officials and railway supervisors watched the execution of the Japanese convoy coldly, showing no sympathy at all. If the railway fails to be completed according to the deadline set by His Majesty the Emperor and the cabinet government, everyone will end badly. Once they are implicated, dismissal from office is a frivolous matter, and they may even be in danger of being imprisoned.

As the saying goes, a dead Taoist friend will never die a poor Taoist. You Koreans have a large population anyway, so even if we consume a little more, it won't hurt.

By the way, this group of short Japanese escorts are also conscientious in their duties, and they are easy to call upon. They do everything they are asked to do, and they can do and dare to do any nasty and evil things, and they are easy to manage. The Koreans on the construction site were oppressed and enslaved. Although they understood who their real victims were, under the power accumulated by the North Ming Dynasty for many years, they dared not speak out and were angry. They could only focus their hatred on those who directly inflicted violence on them. On the Japanese.

These Japanese ronin didn't care what the Koreans thought, and were more than happy to play such a role, acting as a sharp knife in Beiming's hand.

It is hard to say that although Japan today has enjoyed peace for a long time, its economy has been completely reduced to a colony of Qi and Beiming. All industries are in decline and people's livelihood is difficult. The number of broken warriors and disqualified warriors is also increasing day by day, and they have become ronin.

Several large cities with a strong commercial atmosphere, such as Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka, gathered tens of thousands of ronin who had no food and clothing, living a life of hunger and cold. If these ronin can be recruited by merchants to protect their masters or to look after their homes and courtyards, they must bow down to Amaterasu and be extremely grateful. But more ronin can only do day labor such as part-time labor, without a meal, miserable, and have lost the so-called dignity of a samurai.

Therefore, if you can go overseas to find a job with a pretty good salary, you will naturally have to perform actively.

Currently, there are more than 80 Japanese ronin escorts at the Chunhua Town section of the railway construction site. They are responsible for maintaining security and order on the railway construction site, protecting Qi's engineering and technical personnel. They are equipped with a mixture of firearms and cold weapons, and they also have to supervise and manage Nearly a thousand Korean coolies were employed to prevent them from slacking off on work or escaping privately. As for their salary and remuneration, each person has a monthly salary of three yuan, as well as physical subsidies such as food and carbon dioxide worth one yuan and a half, and they also live in a collective dormitory. They have enough food and clothing and generous treatment. They cannot help but work hard.

What's more, after serving for five years, if you don't want to return to Japan, you can choose to naturalize in Beiming, get a piece of land of your own, and bring your family in Japan to live a good life with food, clothing and warmth.

The total length of the railway from Shuangchengzi to Funing is about 120 kilometers. It passes through dense forests in valleys and many winding rivers. The construction is still quite difficult. Not to mention, during the midwinter period from the end of October to March next year, thousands of miles are covered with ice and the ground is frozen, which adds to the difficulties during the construction process. It is still very challenging to complete the project on time before June next year.

However, the Beiming government recruited more than 6,000 laborers from North Korea, and also dug out many tribal people from the mountains and forests, in order to ensure that the railway construction section always had sufficient human resources. In the eyes of officials, with people and enough food provided, even if they pull me with their feet and chew it with their teeth, the progress of railway construction must be guaranteed.

Under such high pressure, there is no doubt that the physical strength and even lives of road construction workers will be cruelly squeezed.

The weather is pitiful. Winter has not yet arrived. After several months of intensive construction, the original number of road construction workers exceeded 7,000 to 8,000, and they have lost 400 to 500 people. There were work-related injuries, some fell ill, and some fled. To name a few. If the weather turns cold and heavy snow falls, the number of workers lost will probably be even greater.

Yes, the railway construction management personnel in Beiming have no intention of stopping construction when winter comes. They are prepared to repair as many sections as they can. As long as the workers can endure it, they will continue to work desperately.

To be honest, when Beiming occupied Zhenzhou, they didn't pay much attention to this vast territory. Not to mention the cold weather, there are still few resources, there are deep mountains and dense forests everywhere, and there are countless savage tribes. It is basically a wild land without any development. It would be a waste of valuable resources to immigrate here.

Unzhou (Hokkaido), which is the core jurisdiction of Hokkaido, is relatively cold, but at least there is a warm current (Tsushima Warm Current) passing through it. It has a temperate monsoon climate. In most areas, in winter, the lowest temperature is only a dozen or so below zero. According to the weather conditions, the precipitation ranges from 800 mm to 1200 mm, which is considered abundant. It is almost unaffected by the rainy season and typhoons, and has four distinct seasons. After only a few decades of development, it has become the largest granary in Beiming. Not to mention the nearby fishing ground (Hokkaido Fishing Ground), the fishery resources are not too rich. If you just catch a net, you can catch a lot of fish, such as salmon, pollock, herring, sardines, saury..., the size Fat and delicious, it has become the most important meat supplement among the people of Beiming.

What is there in Zhenzhou?

wood?

Kuye Island (today's Sakhalin Island), which is closer to Yunzhou, has richer timber resources.

Fisheries?

Comparable to the fishing grounds near Yunzhou!

fur?

Well, of course, this is a relatively valuable thing. Whether it is sold to people in Qi or to the mainland, it can be exchanged for a lot of money.

Well, maybe just for this reason, the early Beiming regime reluctantly began to colonize Zhenzhou, conquered the local indigenous tribes, established a local government, and brought this barbaric land under Beiming rule.

However, later in the local war against the Qing invaders and the puppet Qin (yes, Beiming always insisted that it was the legitimate political power on the mainland, and the Sun family of Qin was just a rebellious official and traitor seeking power and usurping the throne), he frequently mobilized the Zhenzhou area. The natives participated in the war and found that after simple training, these savages had very high combat effectiveness and were not afraid of death. Whether they were serving as scouts, sentries, or death squads charging into the battle, they were definitely the best cannon fodder in the army. Oh, no. , should be the best source of troops.

In order to strengthen the combat effectiveness of its own army, the Beiming government immediately recruited a large number of indigenous people in Zhenzhou, Kuye Island and other places. Together with the powerful musketeers, they began to kill all sides.

Before the Qing rebels were defeated and fled to the mainland, Beiming frequently landed in coastal areas and launched "summer hunting" and "winter hunting" operations to obtain valuable populations and materials to enhance and supplement its own strength. In the face of the counterattack of the Qing invaders, the "barbarian army" composed of indigenous people really surprised the Eight Banners armored soldiers. "The captives are fierce and their strength is not weaker than Sauron's soldiers. They are supplemented by sharp firearms. No army dares to do so." Plunder its front." At one time, the Qing captives were forced to implement the so-called border relocation and sea ban in some coastal areas. "Ordered the people of the Southern and Southern Oceans to build boundary walls at important passes, from Jiangkou to Jinzhou. The walls were four feet wide and high. Six feet, each household plans to build two feet and one foot. A watchtower is built at the boundary entrance, and another boundary embankment is built when it meets the sea."

In 1662, the Northern Ming Dynasty and Qi State invaded North Korea. Under the cover of musketeer fire, these "barbarians" often only numbered dozens or hundreds of people, and they dared to chase thousands of North Korean troops and kill them. North Koreans vaguely experienced the Dingmao chaos and Bingzi chaos caused by the Hou Jin invasion in the past.

In 1677, in Korea, which has three thousand miles of rivers and mountains, the Ming army invaded Korea from North Hamgyong Province and Dongnae (Busan), and fought fiercely with the Qin army for a year. These "barbarians" repeatedly attacked the Qin army in the rugged mountains. The military troops and logistics supplies, combined with the new army of the Northern Ming Dynasty with higher firearm equipment rate, defeated more than Qin troops one after another until they had no temper at all. They could only stop the war under the mediation of Qi State, and control the area respectively. Delineate spheres of influence.

It was also on the basis of continuously subduing the indigenous tribesmen and using them as sources of troops for the army that Beiming also gradually increased its efforts to develop the Zhenzhou territory.

With the deepening of the development of Zhenzhou, towns and villages were built one after another, and countless arable lands were reclaimed. Buckwheat, wheat, corn, oats, barley, soybeans, as well as various vegetables, fruits and other crops can be grown. And the output is not low. What's even more amazing is that under the help of a group of North Korean immigrants who are good at growing rice, rice was actually grown, allowing the people in this wild land to eat rare rice.

Since 1672, Zhenzhou has not only achieved self-sufficiency in grain, but also exported tens of millions of dan of grain to Yunzhou, Korea, Dongdan, Bohai and other countries and regions every year, contributing a large amount of fiscal revenue to the Beiming government.

At the same time, precious furs, ginseng, deer antlers, and dongzhu from Lingbei, Beihai, and Zhenzhou also brought a steady stream of wealth to Beiming.

Not to mention, under the guidance of Qi State geological exploration personnel, the Beiming government has successively discovered coal, iron, zinc, tin and other mineral resources in various parts of Zhenzhou, which has a positive role in promoting the industrial development of Beiming.

Eight years ago, with the financial and technical support of Qi State, Beiming's second steel plant was completed and put into operation in Zhenzhou City (today's Vladivostok City). The annual output has now reached 20,000 tons. It is precisely because of the existence of this steel plant that Beiming has the confidence to extend the Shuangzhen Railway to Boli City in the next few years.

Today, Zhenzhou has become the most important industrial base and food base in the Beiming Dynasty, as well as the main source of furs. It is an important tax-paying area for the Beiming Dynasty. There will be no room for any loss, and the Qin State will not be allowed to invade this place from Liaodong. More importantly, with the existence of Zhenzhou, the Northern Ming Dynasty could control Dongdan and the Bohai Sea in the north, suppress North Korea in the south, control Qin in the west, and then control the entire West Sea (today's Benhai).

Therefore, Zhenzhou is the core area of ​​Beiming. No matter what the circumstances, we must protect it!

(End of this chapter)