Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1842 Digestion and Negotiation ([-])

The atmosphere in Shaoxing Mansion has become a little more relaxed recently, which makes Min Honggui heave a sigh of relief, but at the same time, he is also slightly satisfied. This is all thanks to him, Min!

Of course, Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu, the second military management director who succeeded the departed Navy Lieutenant Colonel Liu Fubo (he had temporarily managed the military area when he first took over the eastern half of Shaoxing Mansion), naturally contributed the most.And as one of the most capable officers under him, Min Honggui has also won the approval of the top officials of the Southern Pioneering Team through his hard work over the past year. As for his future prospects, there is naturally a great possibility that he will be promoted. up.

Min Honggui was transferred from the position of county magistrate of Xinchang to the newly established East Shaoxing Military Control District, where he was responsible for social propaganda and education.To put it nicely, it is actually recruiting and accepting rebels at the local level, and establishing a new order for the people on the east coast.To put it more bluntly, Min Honggui's most important task is to establish stability maintenance committees in Yuyao County, Shangyu County, and Linshanwei to provide food, grass, and military salaries for the east bank troops stationed here to suppress them. Let the pioneering team government continue to bleed to support these big soldiers.

Today, Deputy Director Min Hongguimin followed Wang Erdian, the chairman of the Shangyu County Stability Maintenance Association, to the countryside to collect grain.They brought three platoons of infantry, all from the Fifth Division of the Zhejiang New Army. The early rice outside has already been harvested, and the grain in the hands of the household landlords is really not small, but because the people on the east coast have not yet established a stable and reliable tax collection system, so they can only rely on these local snakes to help collect grain and taxes.

Wang Erdian is the owner of a pawn shop in Shangyu County. It is said that his ancestors inherited poems and books. I don’t know why his generation can’t even get fame. He can only rely on his father’s relationship to manage a pawn shop in the city. OK.Perhaps because of the dense population and prosperous business in Shangyu County, the business of his pawn shop is very good. It is an exaggeration to say that it is making a lot of money every day, but the daily income cannot be said to be a small amount.Therefore, under the protection of people who have no fame and no education in his family, this money-making pawn shop has been spotted by many powerful people, and they want to find an excuse to swallow it.

As the head snake in Shangyu County, Wang Erdian, who has been rooted here for countless generations, naturally also felt the wind, especially the county magistrate who was born in the Han Army Banner, he was not a good bird at first glance.But after thinking about it, he didn't have a good way to solve it. He was so worried for a while, it seemed that he could only wait for death.

It's also because he deserved to die, just when the magistrate of the banner of the Han army was about to do something bad at any time and destroy his family, the bandit in yellow—ah no, it was the heavenly soldiers from the east bank—suddenly attacked, and the imperial army—uh, again You said the wrong thing, it was the bandit soldiers of the Qing Dynasty who lost consecutive battles for several months and fell apart. The three counties of Shengxian, Yuyao, Shangyu, and Linshan were all lost, and even the prefectural city west of the Cao'e River was also robbed. After some sweeping, Wang Erdian was inexplicably shocked but also ecstatic because he was saved!

After being rescued, Wang Erdian did not hesitate. After the people on the east coast formally established the military area in September, and the upper officials were in place one after another, he took refuge in the past in early October. Taking advantage of his familiarity, he competed for the position of a member of the Stability Maintenance Committee. and because they seem to be eloquent and well-connected in the countryside (their family has a lot of land in the countryside of Shangyu County), Deputy Director Min Hongguimin appointed him as the chairman of the Stability Maintenance Association, and has since been regarded as a non-staff cadre in the East Bank.

The Stability Maintenance Committee, as the name suggests, is trying to maintain local stability. At the same time, cadres, technicians, and soldiers sent from the east coast provide food and salaries to maintain their digestion and transformation of the occupied areas.Wang Erdian is naturally very familiar with this kind of "business". No, a few months after taking office, he held several meetings of all members of the Stability Maintenance Committee, and made a feasible apportionment according to the money and grain requirements given by Min Honggui. plan.

Afterwards, he commanded the third class of yamen servants in Shangyu County to collect money and food from house to house.Some of the money and food are easier to collect, because they originally come from members of the Stability Maintenance Committee, or those wealthy businessmen know that the sky has changed and have to bleed, so they are more cooperative in collecting food and taxes.But some money and food are more difficult to collect, especially some diehards (of course, there are also some who are more resistant because they do not accept the apportionment ratio). They were locked up and taken to prison, and after a clean-up, they basically paid the fines and taxes in full.

Min Honggui, the deputy director of military management, greatly appreciated Wang Erdian's ability, so he said a few good words in front of Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu, the director of military management, and Wang Erdian got the status of an official cadre, and since then he has also received the salary of Shangguo on the east bank, which is also very flattering .Today is the day that Min Honggui and he made an appointment to go to the countryside to collect grain. They borrowed three platoons of new troops from the city, and brought seven or eight policemen with them, and some coolies behind them pulled large and small carriages. A group of people walked towards the countryside in a mighty manner.

The place where they were going to collect food was not very close, and it was already afternoon when everyone arrived.The villagers in the nearest village seemed a little afraid of them, but they quickly went to inform the village elders to come forward to receive them.In fact, this is already very good!You know, when the people from the East Bank went to the countryside for the first time to collect grain, these villagers ran away when they saw the soldiers in yellow clothes, and ran away from the whole village!One of the East Coast staff officers who led the team was very confused. He didn't know why they were so scared. You must know that the war has been over for a while!

Then he tracked down a distraught villager in hiding and held him at gunpoint to tell him why.The villager tremblingly said that the reason why everyone ran away was that during the previous war, a group of soldiers from the east bank who passed by shot and killed several people because they failed to get food and water.The staff officer was speechless for a long time after listening. He asked people to write down what the villagers said, and planned to go back and ask the military police to investigate which part of the soldiers had such poor military discipline. What's more, they have always believed that the military discipline of the east coast army is already the best in this era, and there is no need to improve it.

Of course, the reason why the common people run away when they see the people from the east bank is not limited to some bad rumors or real incidents that disturb the people. A sweeping arrest was carried out, and then sent to Dinghai Port as an immigration reserve population.This kind of arrest is undoubtedly extremely bad, because wherever the soldiers on the east bank passed, even livestock were not spared, many houses were demolished, and materials were sent to the outside of Shangyu City to build fortifications. This shows the seriousness of the situation at that time. Tragic.

Although the act of arresting the people of Shangyu County as an immigrant reserve was stopped halfway - because the army commanded by Junio ​​defeated the Qing army in the direction of Yuyao County, and then occupied Shangyu County, the situation east of Cao'e River was stable. Ma Wenqiang has a bigger goal, so he urgently called a stop-but the bad influence has already been caused, and the image is difficult to restore for a while, making the local people flee when they see the soldiers on the east bank, and they are helpless.

As a last resort, Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu, who took office as the director of military management, directly left the heavy responsibility of breaking the situation to the "professional counterparts" members of the Stability Maintenance Association.And they did have a better way. Through various channels and methods, it took about half a year to finally turn the situation around slowly, so that the rural villagers finally no longer had much resistance to the rulers on the east bank.Although I'm still scared, I finally stopped running. This is progress, isn't it?

"Zhang Yuanwai, this way, come here, come here." One of Wang Erdian's nephews, Wang Xiaodao, who was born in the Communist Party, shouted loudly at a middle-aged man.This guy is now a small head of the County Public Security Bureau, with seven or eight policemen under his command, and most of them are former gangsters (in fact, gangsters...), and they all dressed up in high spirits. Very skinny, with a knife and gun on his shoulders, his status is naturally extraordinary, and his voice is three points louder than usual.

Zhang Yuanwai had seen Wang Erdian and Wang Xiaodao's uncle and nephew a long time ago, but he pretended not to see them all the time. Now he would see someone calling him. Frightened by the prestige of the more than 60 East Coast soldiers carrying rifles, Zhang Yuanwai almost took one step at a time. Nodi walked over, and said with a bitter face: "President Wang, didn't you say you will come here next month? We haven't collected all the money and food in our village yet. If you come now, I'm afraid it will be an empty trip."

"I can't do it next month! Xinchang and Sheng counties are in a hurry to reclaim wasteland, and the folks who build the defense line of the river (on the east bank of the Cao'e River) also need a lot of money and food. I'm afraid Mr. Sun can't wait until next month, and the money and food will be put into the warehouse this month. If If it doesn't work, not only will I suffer, but you will also be in great trouble." Wang Xiaodao yelled loudly, shaking his head like a rattle.As he spoke, he also looked at Zhang Yuanwai with some satisfaction, thinking that he would not dare to provoke such country tyrants, because they have money and people, and they have connections in the county town. It's not too difficult, as long as you are willing to pay some price.But now, this respectable person who stomped his feet and would be shocked within a few miles, has a day to talk to himself in a low voice, what a pleasure this is!

Of course, Wang Xiaodao is not a fool, he knows very well who gave all this now!The governor of Dong'an can make himself so prestige in the county, and naturally he can also make him lose his prestige. Therefore, Wang Xiaodao has always been very conscientious in handling affairs for the governor of Dong'an, even if he does not hesitate to do so.In this respect, he is quite like his uncle Wang Erdian, it is true that the whole family does not belong to the same family!For example, at this moment, even if Min Honggui is not by his side, he will try his best to collect money and food from this member. He believes that he has this ability, and the three rows of East Coast infantry behind him are his greatest confidence.

"President Wang, I'm really in a hurry to collect grain and money this month." Member Zhang ignored Wang Xiaodao, and said directly to Wang Erdian who was standing behind him: "The early rice was only harvested in mid-July, and it's less than a month so far. It’s the season when all the villages sell rice, and the price of grain has fallen sharply. It’s no problem for you to collect grain at this time, but if you have to collect taxes together, it will be difficult. I don’t have any money left, I have to wait until the rice is sold, or come back next month? I will definitely collect all the money and food, and wait for President Wang to visit you.”

"What nonsense are you talking about!" Wang Erdian looked at the local tyrant who was still a little confused, sighed, and said, "Mr. Zhang, if it was in the Qing Dynasty before, maybe this matter can be lenient for a while, but now it's the East. The world is facing the kingdom of Shang. If you still stick to the old way of doing things, you may be a bit outdated. Let’s put it this way, Mr. Zhang, your village has to pay today whether it is paid or not. Not only the rice needs The full amount, and this money must not be less, otherwise I will not be able to pay the errand."

Seeing what Zhang Yuanwai wanted to say, Wang Erdian took a step forward, lowered his voice and said, "Director Min from the military-administered area went to the countryside to collect collections in person. It's unlucky for you, Zhang, and you won't escape. Don't look at me like that. I, I know that your family still has some old foundations, and the shops in the city are also very well-run. Lao Zhang, I have agreed that the tax money in this village will be covered by you, and you must be clear about it. Okay, okay, don't have such a dead expression, what's the big deal, and hang out with the adults of the Eastern Dynasty, and the days from now on will definitely get better day by day. The Tartars were so strong back then, didn't they also Have you been beaten away? You should have heard about the situation in Ningbo in the east over the years. The officials of the Eastern Dynasty Shangguo are not as greedy as the Qing Dynasty, and their level is naturally much better than those officials of the Qing Dynasty. At least I haven't heard of many cases of robbery and robbery. We live a peaceful life under the rule of the East Bank, and we are a rich man. If we want to make trouble, I'm afraid there will be no good end. And, old Zhang, don't worry about that Lao Shizi Qinghui called back, bah, it’s impossible! I won’t play charades with you at this time. A few days ago, Daqing Hangzhou sent people over quietly, saying that they wanted to negotiate peace with our Dadong’an. Hehe, how can this be? What kind of peace is it? It’s just a nice way to say it. It’s obviously a defeat and a peace, begging our Dadong’an to let them go, and don’t go there again! So, Lao Zhang, you can also put away some of your little thoughts, no Count on it, live a good life in the future, I won't lie to you."

What Wang Erdian said was truthful and sincere, and Zhang Yuanwai couldn't help but feel a little moved.In fact, as Wang Erdian said just now, although almost a year has passed, his hatred of the East Bank has never been eliminated in his heart, and he has never given up the hope of "My Great Qing" fighting back again.But this is what Wang Erdian said, Hangzhou Daying actually wants to admit the fact of inheritance and negotiate peace with the yellow clothes thieves?This shattered the last illusion in his heart, and he had to seriously think about how to live in the future. Compared with it, some money and food are trivial matters!

(End of this chapter)