Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1021 The Growing Ambition ([-])

"What?" Liang Xiangjian put down the bowls and chopsticks helplessly, and said while picking his teeth, "Wei Boqiu was lucky. He was injured by an arrow and he was fine. Now he is alive and kicking again. It's really disappointing."

This is Miaojie County at the estuary of the Amur River. It has a vast land and few people, and the county is vast. In the past two years since the establishment of the county, the population has barely increased to more than 7700 people. It is already a very prosperous place in the Amur River area.All kinds of "elites" from the lower reaches of the Amur River are gathered here: there are cobblers, tailors (from sewing fish skins), hunters, doctors, horse trainers, beekeepers, ginseng pickers, and of course more gold digger.In short, all the good things are gathered here, and the life is much more comfortable than in other nearby areas within hundreds of miles. There are also more kinds of daily necessities, and the agricultural output is even more impressive. In addition, it is a river port and a sea port at the same time. People on the east coast are focusing on development again, so it's strange that they can't develop!

Liang Xiangjian came here this time to escort a batch of grain and grass. After all, the east bank army led by Chang Kaisheng has been building walls, opening up wasteland, dredging rivers, and building forts in Boli Village for more than a year. The deputy chief looked like he was doing something.It has been a long time, and the consumption of materials is naturally not a small amount, and these materials are naturally not enough to be supported by the local Shandan people. Most of the supply still depends on the two counties of Heishui and Dabo in the rear. Even some grains have to be shipped from Shandong, which is not easy.Fortunately, people on the east bank have the advantage of convenient and cheap water transportation, which is unmatched by the Qing court, which can only go by land. short board.

The ambitious Chang Kaisheng also saw through the disadvantages of the Qing court on this point, so he did not take the opponent seriously, and constantly dispatched large groups of troops to sweep up the tribes attached to the Manchu Bogd Khan, and at the same time gave small favors and small favors to the generals. Some tribes of scutellaria were attracted, and then settled in the area controlled by one's own side further downstream of the Amur River, and finally digested the control.

Chang Kaisheng optimistically predicts that after the spring of next year, there will no longer be any tribe on both sides of the Amur River that dares to cling to the Qing dynasty.These tribes are struggling to survive in the bitter cold land, which is the most realistic. Since Bogd Khan can't protect them, so what if they voted for "Yellow Khan"?That way at least everyone can survive.

And in the late spring and early summer of 1654, Chang Kaisheng would lead the troops who had been training for more than a year to move south along the river, build forts, station garrisons, gradually erode the Manchu control area and compress their activity space little by little.Anyway, with the scarce troops of the Sharhuda tribe stationed in Ningguta in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, it is certainly not possible to pose a threat to them. As for the transfer of troops from the south, it is unlikely.Not to mention the rotten North Manchuria after the ice and snow melted in the early spring. The painful traffic conditions in that barren land are enough to make any logistics transportation force daunting.On the other hand, the people on the east bank, Heilongjiang, Wusuli River, and Songhua River are their natural transportation channels. The extremely high transportation efficiency of water transportation is enough to greatly increase the mobility of Chang Kaisheng's troops, and at the same time, it can also kill the Qing army by piling up materials. , There is simply no comparison between the two, and the Qing army faces double disadvantages at the strategic and tactical levels.

While the front is preparing to fight, the rear naturally cannot hold back and cause problems.Since Wang Shichuan, the county magistrate of Miaojie County, also led the Heilongjiang security team (which has expanded to 2000 people) to station in the front to guard against changes in the Qing army—although the possibility is no longer great—then the county government in the rear is naturally The management has been neglected, and although there are some assistant officials who are handling daily affairs, Shao Shude is still not at ease, so he asked Liang Xiangjian to take charge of the county affairs of Miaojie County for a while, so as not to let anything go wrong here.

Therefore, after Liang Xiangjian returned to Heishui Port from Yuanshanjin in July, he only stayed for just over a month to deal with the backlog of affairs, and then raised a batch of supplies (mainly arms, food and building materials), and took The boat arrived at Temple Street Port, which is very shabby compared to Heishui Port.

The ships that transport the goods are basically medium-sized fishing boats (150 tons, now it has increased to 45, belonging to the newly established Blackwater Fishery Company), and there are also 4 local "subsidized" whaling ships (temporary cameo a cargo ship).These ships are all anchored at the moment and moored on the surface of the misty Amur River, waiting to be docked and unloaded one by one.The captains stood on the bow of the boat chatting boredly and anxiously. Most of the chats were about the saury fishing season in October from the coastal waters of the Thousand Islands to Ezo. This was a big event of the year for them. Everyone’s salary , commission, and the so-called year-end bonus are not high enough, but it depends on this hammer deal.

After Liang Xiangjian had a fairly sumptuous lunch in the county government, he, who was originally contented, was disturbed by the sudden news from Yuan Shanjin.As a result, I lost my interest in hunting in the mountains in the afternoon. Considering that the departure time is not short, some fine ice floes will appear on the surface of the lower reaches of the Amur River in half a month—although it does not hinder navigation, it will always It's not a problem - so Liang Da Standing Committee decided to take the "Sakhalin Eagle" steam engine sailboat and return to Heishui Port to preside over a series of work before winter.

The "Sakhalin Eagle" was berthed at the best berth in Temple Street Port. At this time, the flag on the top of the mast was being blown by the westerly wind.According to Liang Xiangjian's order, the captain has raised a striking sailing flag on the topmast, and the ship's boiler has been lit to heat up. The sailors are busy on the deck without rush, making the last preparations before sailing.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger, and the broad river surface at the estuary was blown by the strong wind, and dark green waves were rolled up. Although the undulations were not as good as those in the open sea, they were not much different.Some Shandan people paddling birch bark boats ate the smoked salmon loin and loudly sold their products to the sailors on board. Most of their products were local specialties and were also popular among the sailors, such as several A piece of high-quality fur, such as a handful of gold dust, such as some raw materials for making stimulants (that is, velvet antlers, Shandan people think that people on the east coast buy these back to make stimulants), etc.Liang Xiangjian looked very interesting, but considering that it was getting late and the wind on the river was getting stronger, it might be dangerous if he didn't leave, so he had to ask the sailors to drive these natives away.

The whistle of the sailing finally sounded loudly, and after finally loading a batch of livestock, the "Sakhalin Eagle" began to turn slowly, left the dock berth, and headed for the central channel of the Amur River.Because the wind on the river was too windy, the captain turned the boom greatly, and only used the crosswind to sail, which kept the speed of the ship at a moderate level, which was crucial for passing through the estuary of the Amur River, which was densely covered with shoals and hidden reefs.

"This guy Wei Boqiu actually recruited more than 700 North Korean soldiers in Yuanshanjin, and Nima even recruited such junk as sticks. Old Wei is really impatient." Liang Xiangjian sat in the captain's room and patted a letter on the table. The letter said to himself: "There are more than 600 people plus the original [-] surrendered soldiers from the Qing army. If we recruit some Japanese ronin or Shandan people for him, the number of the independent first garrison brigade Shao Shude gave will be full. Some After leaving these people, Wei Boqiu is still in the wilderness? Matsumae Fan is probably going to be beaten by him. I don’t know if Old Wei will go along the coast of Japan? I probably don’t dare, because the army’s combat power is too bad , Second, he doesn't dare to mess up such an important matter for the time being. But I have to keep an eye on him, and I can't let him take advantage of the loopholes to damage the national interest."

When thinking about the expansion of Wei Boqiu's troops again, Liang Xiangjian suddenly found that he only had a Blackwater militia team of about 200 people in his hands. When the deputy commander came, he was indeed a bit worse.Thinking of this, Liang Xiangjian suddenly felt uncomfortable, and planned to expand the county militia team as soon as he returned to Heishui to strengthen his strength.Didn’t Commander-in-Chief Shao in Yantai call on the counties to “establish more reserve troops to provide high-quality soldiers for the regular army”? That’s what our old Liang did. We expanded the Blackwater army on the grounds of deterring and cleaning up the Shandan natives who did not accept discipline. The number of soldiers in the security regiment will save Wei Boqiu from being unable to restrain him when he has a different heart in the future.Well, Bogdan, an Albanian, has been in Heishui for some years. He has good abilities and has fought against the Ottomans for many years, so he has rich experience. It should be very good for him to train the militia.

Of course, there are actually many sources of soldiers. For example, in the past two years, Chang Kaisheng, the commander of the Heilongjiang theater, captured a large number of Qing army prisoners in Bolizhai.The total number of these people is now almost more than [-] (more than [-]% of them are tribesmen). In the past, as long as Liang Xiangjian is willing, they can be brought back to form an army in minutes.It's just that with the change of Shao Shude's policy, the treatment of such diehards (Manchurian Eight Banners and tribal people) has become increasingly severe. Now Yantai's latest order is to organize these people into divisions and regiments, and then exile them to some wild places. Let the land to fend for itself - if these people do not "disintegrate" after a few years, then the East Coast Republic of China does not mind accepting them again to return to the civilized world. Of course, the land they have opened up will naturally be destroyed. The country accepted it together.

"Hmph, without these soldiers and generals, is there nothing I can do? I am so anxious, I even recruit Russians. We are civilized people anyway, whoever they work for is not a part-time job. That Pavlov last time Serving in Miaojie County, isn't it a good job." Liang Xiangjian thought about it.Now the Far East is in a sensitive period of power transfer, all the members of the Standing Committee are trying their best to expand their strength, and Shao Shude's suppression of them has also faintly relaxed, which undoubtedly further stimulated some people's ambitions, Wei Boqiu said, Liang Xiangjian is no different.

(End of this chapter)