Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1051 Exile

With a piercing siren, two whaling ships sailed into the calm bay one after the other, and then anchored at a place about several hundred meters offshore.

After a while, many sailors wearing thick leather jackets appeared on the deck of the ship. Under the order of the officer, they hurriedly put several small boats on the surface of the sea, and then seven or eight people climbed down the rope ladder, steadily Standing in the cabin of the rickety boat, he picked up the bags of goods unloaded from the big ship.

There are many types of goods, but most of them are daily necessities, such as: rye, potatoes, salt, salted fish, dried meat, dried vegetables, etc., and even a little tobacco, sugar and spirits in the last bag-nothing Undoubtedly, these three luxuries will definitely cause huge competition among the "reform through labor prisoners" on the island.

When a skiff was fully loaded, the sailors, under the command of a leader, rowed vigorously toward the shore.At this time, on the shore, there are many "reform through labor prisoners" wearing worn-out army coats (old cotton padded clothes discarded after the army on the east bank was replaced). Stomping hard to keep warm—a supply drop ship once every few months is definitely the last thing these poor people on shore look forward to seeing.

Of course, it is not too accurate to say that they are "poor people", after all, they are all people who have committed countless crimes!If you say they are pitiful, aren't the ordinary people of Ming Dynasty who died under their butcher's knife pitiful?Yes, that's right, these people are the surrendered soldiers of the Qing army - more than 95% of the surrendered soldiers of the Qing army captured by the people on the east bank in previous battles were the green camp Han army, and there were a very small number of Manchus and Mongols.During the process of the Manchu Qing going south, these people participated in many battles, and naturally they did a lot of crimes in the local area. After being captured by the army on the east bank, some of their "well-known" officers were captured. Take them out and kill them, and then the rest of them are scattered and mixed up.In this way, the Shaanxi-Gansu soldiers, Henan soldiers, Zhili soldiers, Jiangbei soldiers, and Shanxi soldiers (most of the Green Camp in the south of the Qing Dynasty are composed of these people) are mixed. Some are different, and they are really chaotic, but this also greatly reduces the possibility of their riots.

Especially after they were exiled to some bitter cold places, because their daily necessities were almost completely dependent on external supplies, they were even more obedient to the people on the east coast.But even so, the Blackwater region still doesn't trust these people very much. Only one-third of them have weapons, not to mention that even the supply ship anchored far away from the sea when it approached the port. , and then use small boats to transfer materials back and forth, in case they are accidentally held hostage by these reform-through-labor prisoners.

Of course, maybe they were a little too cautious, because there is a small seafood processing factory on the shore next to the labor camp.There are probably dozens of workers in this factory. In addition to the normal processing of common seafood such as cod, crab, squid, and flounder, it also processes sea animals such as whales, seals, and fur dogs. In addition, it can also process these sea animal skins. full functioning.This factory has been established for almost half a year. So far, it has processed two whales, hundreds of sea animals, and hundreds of tons of seafood (basically caught in nearby waters), and its contribution is quite large.

This time the two whaling ships came here, in addition to sending a batch of supplies, they also had to take the time to go around the nearby waters to see if they could catch a whale or two.However, considering that the bad weather will come in October, they will have to return after staying at sea for more than 20 days at most, otherwise no one in the Bering Sea can guarantee that they will not be taken away by the Dragon King.

This is Avachin Bay, the later city of Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula. There are geothermal springs nearby, surrounded by a circle of volcanoes, and only a small piece of flat land along the coast.And because of this, it has become one of the few relatively warm places in the bitterly cold land of the Kamchatka Peninsula (the average temperature in winter is even much higher than most areas in Liaoning), and the port here is also an excellent ice-free port (Because there is a warm current passing nearby, but there are still small ice drifts in the harbor in mid-winter, so you need to be careful when sailing with wooden boats), rich in fishery resources, and forests of trees on the mountains. It's a pretty good place.

The reason why Shao Dashuai of Yantai took a fancy to this place and designated it as one of the four places where the Qing army surrendered into exile, its climate, geographical location, products and closedness are undoubtedly the most important factors.Heixiazigang (named for the large number of local bears) with a warm climate can grow oats, rye, potatoes and soybeans with short growth periods. The nearby fishery resources are extremely rich, and there are many old forests in the deep mountains. Although it is a bit difficult (grain production is generally very low in the first few years), but if a batch of supplies is regularly shipped over, it is not impossible to survive.

What's more, in Shao Shude's plan, these places will have to support themselves in the future - at least most of the costs will be borne.Take Heixiazi Port as an example. In the future, the surrendered soldiers from the Qing army here will work in lumber mills, seafood processing factories, and docks, and exchange their labor for the food and clothing they need to survive.The fishery resources off the coast of Heixiazi Port are still very rich, especially after the five steam whaling ships ordered by the Blackwater Pioneering Team have been put in place and whaling operations have been carried out one after another. The master is naturally too busy to disembowel, clean, pickle, air-dry, store, and transport the fish he catches, refine sea animal fat, tan leather, reuse whale skeletons and internal organs, etc., which does not require a large amount workforce?

Not to mention that the construction of dock facilities is a bottomless pit that swallows labor.You know, the people on the east coast have already built this place as a supply and processing base for the fishing fleet, so they naturally need a high-standard wharf.The initial construction must have been exhausting, and there will inevitably be a large number of builders reducing their staff. This can only be done by these ready-made Qing soldiers. Who made them stand on the wrong team and unfortunately lost and captured Woolen cloth?

"It turned out to be Master Luo, who brought food to the sons again? Ah, it's really hard work." After seeing a few sailors from the east coast jumping onto the small wooden trestle, a leader who seemed to be an officer walked quickly He came over and said with a flattering face.

The sailor called "Master Luo" just nodded upon hearing this, and then looked around the entire camp.The camp is now in rough shape, with wooden houses everywhere, and they even set up a livestock pen, in which they kept a dozen sheep that they got from nowhere—maybe they were brought here before. Are you willing to eat and raise yourself?

Next to the livestock pen is a watchtower, with a large flag hanging on the top of the tower, which reads "The First Regiment of the Production and Construction Corps". ready.

"It's poor, it's really not easy to live here." The bosun looked at the men in front of him whose faces were livid by the sea wind, sighed, and said, "I brought you a lot of food, wine and Yan, and eight big fat pigs, you should raise them well and kill them to eat during the Chinese New Year. Do it well, don’t steal or play tricks. I heard Heishuiliang tell Mr. Jianliang that Deputy Commander Wei suggested to kill you all. After the incident, only Marshal Shao has a heart of benevolence and feels that killing prisoners will hurt the peace of heaven, so he sent you to various places. Well, it is bitterly cold here, do you have any grudges?"

"Don't dare, dare not!" As soon as the bosun's voice fell, these former Qing army generals knelt on the ground and said tremblingly.

"That's good. Get up, now the new society, if you don't want to kneel, get up." The bosun raised his hands and said: "There is still one month before the winter, you hurry up and work, wood, dried fish , Prepare a lot of oil (refined seal oil, which is used as machine lubricant, and is actually a strategic material in the Heishui area), and there will be another big fight soon!"

A few people were a little embarrassed to hear the bosun's words. Everyone knew the meaning of "big fight", let's fight Da Qing!Weren't they captured during the "big fight" in the Battle of the Yangtze River?But then again, they are in such a silent place now, and they are really curious about what happened to the outside world, but due to their own status, they can't ask more about this matter, which is really helpless.

The boatswain seemed to have a better understanding of their thoughts, and after a cold snort, he said, "It's okay to tell you about this, Wu Sangui and Li Guohan have already led the main force into Sichuan, and Zhang Xianzhong from the Western Camp was defeated, so he retreats now." To Dongchuan to take in the refugees, restore their strength, and try again. The Shun army's war in Hubei was also quite unsatisfactory. Many famous cities were lost, and many newly recruited battalion leaders also surrendered to the Qing army. Now it is very difficult. We can only rely on the big river (convenient transportation), rely on the fortified city, and fight fiercely with the Qing army with artillery. Well, in addition, Xiying and Shunying have come very close in the past year, and it seems that there is a tendency to merge, but Zhang Xianzhong It’s difficult to not die! All in all, Marshal Shao thinks he’s going to find a way to mobilize again to bleed the Tartar court so that they don’t attack Xiying and Shunying with all their strength. So, you should work harder and prepare more supplies. If you do a good job, next year you will be allocated land, and those who score in the top [-] will also be divided into wives and mothers. Although they are Korean wives and aunts, they are not bad—of course, if anyone likes those official wives in the women’s stand-up team Ladies, as long as you are ranked in the top [-], you can also bring it up and exchange points for it, in short, you will not be treated badly!"

"Thank you, Sir, thank you, Marshal Shao!" After the sailor's words of dividing the daughters-in-law, the spirits of the surrendered soldiers of the Qing army were immediately lifted, so they immediately thanked them sincerely.

(End of this chapter)