Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1843 Digestion and Negotiation ([-])

On September 1681, 9, there was continuous drizzle in Shangyu County.

"A war of aggression is a costly venture. The invader has to bear the various costs that come with it, such as the expenditure of sending troops, the money and food to maintain the military occupation, and the various expenses required to run the new government. Among these expenses The vast majority can only be plundered from the occupied areas, there is no other way. The occupied areas suffer from various traumas and losses caused by the war, such as loss of wealth and population, damage to infrastructure, decline in production capacity, etc., None of this can be recovered in a short period of time." In the newly renovated military management office in the county seat, Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu, the director of military management, smoked a cigarette and said to Min Honggui who was sitting opposite him: "Shangyu County suffered a large population loss during the war. After going through another period of chaos (the naval officer in charge at the time, Liu Fubo, had no interest in running the place), it only took you more than half a year to restore the economy of this county to what it is today. To be honest, I am surprised, and even more so It's gratifying."

Strictly speaking, like Liu Fubo, the first director of military management, Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu is not actually a member of the Southern Pioneering Team, let alone under the management of the pioneering team leader Ma Wenqiang.Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu, who is in charge of the intelligence work of the entire Far East San Francisco, has a relatively detached position. Although his rank is half a rank lower than Ma Wenqiang and others, he has a lot of power and responsibility. Ma Wenqiang persuaded him to help manage half of the newly occupied area of ​​Shaoxing Prefecture , It was also based on the relationship between the two of them and discussed it.

Of course, since he agreed to do the work of the military officer, Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu planned to do it well, not like his predecessor, the absent-minded naval officer Liu Fubo.In the work plan he drew up, the primary task of the military area was not to resume production, but to establish a new order familiar to people on the east coast.Obviously, the establishment of this new order requires the help of a large number of troops on the east coast. Otherwise, how can we deal with the resistance and non-cooperation of the local people?

These dispatched troops, including the army and navy, have a total of more than 2 people. The daily training, preparations, patrols, and battles (to wipe out bandits and routs scattered everywhere) are not small numbers. Relying on the support of Shangyu and Yuyao counties is not a small amount for the local area, not to mention that there are still some large-scale civil engineering projects in the local area.I believe that if the Shaoxing government had not had a good foundation, the situation had stabilized quickly, and the taxation of the lower class was more effective, it would not have been able to support it.

Therefore, what he said just now is actually a compliment to Min Honggui, the deputy. Under his leadership, in the past half a year or so in Shangyu County and Yuyao County (Linshanwei can be ignored, Shengxian County and Xinchang have already been dispatched by Ningbo) A large number of cadres took over, that is to say, they are under the jurisdiction of their military management area in name, but in fact they have little relationship with the military management office) The excellent collection of money and food has been completed, which is very beneficial to the implementation of his various policies, so he does not hesitate to praise him .

"However, Shangyu County suffered too much losses in the previous wars. If the soldiers and horses of the Green Battalion of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties are not counted, the people lost a total of 4 to [-] people. Some of them were captured by us, and some were killed or injured during the siege. Those who died of starvation, disease, and looting by the defeated army were miserable.” Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu added: “The farmers lost their livestock, the landlords lost their funds, and many handicraftsmen were forced to move their families by Ningbo. Go, especially those weavers, alas, this further destroys the local economic base. And even some workshops or individual businesses that still have production capacity have to go out of business due to lack of raw materials and reliable transportation systems. You are struggling to maintain this It's a mess, it's really not easy, yes, Deputy Director Min, yes."

"Director Sun is overrated, I just did what I should do, and the help of my peers is also very important." Min Honggui said with a smile: "However, as you said just now, Director Sun, Shangyu County lost too much blood. Urgently need to replenish blood. The reason why we have received so much money and food at present is that the county has a good foundation. Even after the war, there is still so much oil in the search and search; the second is also the prestige of our army on the east coast. After all, the war is over. It's been less than a year, people's forgetfulness is not so great, under the urging of the army on the east coast, even if they don't want to, they have to collect the money and food that should be paid."

"However, this is actually overdrawing the future of Shangyu County, and it is not a long-term solution." Min Honggui continued: "If we cannot recover the economy as soon as possible and recover from the war wounds, our military-controlled government will have nothing to rely on and no ability to survive. This in turn will make the government unable to pay the necessary economic input to avoid the vicious circle brought about by fiscal paralysis. To put it plainly, if there are no crops in the field, then the government's money and food will be out of the question. This must be observed.”

"But if the government can't afford to pay for the garrison, local militia and police, then even if the crops in the field are good, everything will be useless." Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu lit a cigarette and added: "After all, we are a military area , it’s military-first politics, and we should place more emphasis on the military. Of course, there is a limit to this, and we should take a good look at how to carry out local economic construction while maintaining the garrison and construction costs.”

In fact, although Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu is a soldier, it's not that he didn't devote any energy to people's livelihood after he took office.At least, at the beginning, he also asked Ningbo to return some of the population of the Sili Baxiang in Shangyu County who had been taken captive before, so as to resolve local hatred and advance various tasks, but was flatly rejected by the Southern Exploration Team Government. up.But this was not allowed, and soon he decided to settle for the next best thing, asking Ningbo to repatriate at least some handicraftsmen to aid the economic construction of Shangyu and Yuyao counties, but was also rejected by Ma Wenqiang of Yin County, on the grounds that the industrial development there was relatively slow. Soon, there is a relatively large gap in such talents, so we will not return it for the time being, and at the same time let Sun Wu carry forward the "spirit of hard work", so that he always has the urge to rage and curse.

In the end, Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu wrote a rather harsh letter to Ma Wenqiang in Yin County, threatening to resign and resign. From there, about dozens of elite cadres were brought in to help carry out various tasks.These people are basically trained by Yantai College and Heishui Transportation College (there are fewer and fewer Bingtuanbao cadres who came to the Far East these years, because there are not enough local people), and most of them learn about local people's livelihood and economy. Therefore, he was quickly assigned to various key jobs and took charge of various tasks.

However, considering that the people on the east bank are building a modern government and have a great demand for various management or technical bureaucrats, these dozens of people are really a bit peppery, and it is not enough!After learning that Ningbo had devoted more energy to Shengxian County and Xinchang, which they considered to be "familiar places" and communicated with the regime of the King of Lu in the south, he resolutely stopped thinking about continuing to be an important person in Ningbo and turned to more. It is the luck of the members of the Stability Maintenance Committee to promote talents locally, and the new regime still has high expectations for them.

"You can't ignore the problem of cadres. Now the various tasks in the military-administered area are gradually on the right track. Naturally, the selection and appointment of talents can no longer be as casual as before. Loyalty to our East Coast Republic is of course important. But now even the Qing court has put down its face to talk to us. Our military-controlled area has passed the most dangerous stage, and it can be said that we have established a firm foothold. Therefore, at such a stage, the ability of cadres, Conduct and conduct must be gradually improved to a level comparable to loyalty, and we can no longer hire all kinds of speculators like in the past. After all, we can't be an occupying army with no future for a lifetime, and we must gradually change to the role of rulers and parents. , This requires us to change the way we work.” Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu pointed out to Min Honggui his work ideas for the next stage while smoking Cosmos brand cigarettes from the mainland, and only heard him say: “Of course this matter also There is no rush. The existence of the Stability Maintenance Association is still very necessary for now, but it must be restricted. I heard that some people rely on our prestige to pretend to be powerful in the county and bully the market. This kind of behavior must be punished. Prohibition. Over there at the Stability Maintenance Committee, Deputy Director Min, take the time to 'guidance' me on my work, beat and beat those who have done too much, if they still don't listen, then report to me, and I will let the military police deal with it of."

"Some people don't cherish the most important opportunity in their lives that we have given them, and act recklessly, so they can only win it. When the labor reform farm at Linshanwei is not a good decoration! Keep an eye on this matter, next time Write a special report to me every month." Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu finally said.

When Min Honggui heard the promise, he said that he must do a good job, and then he left his director's office (formerly the back office of Shangyu County) and walked outside under Sun Wu's signal.When he passed the original signing room, he saw several young cadres from Ningbo talking with some men with braids behind their heads, taking notes from time to time, and they looked quite busy.

That's right, this is to confirm some details of the peace talks with the Qing Dynasty, and Min Honggui quickly remembered this section.

In other words, since the East Bank army commanded by Colonel Junio ​​withdrew from Xiaoshan, Accounting, Shanyin and other counties, and the East and Qing countries tacitly used the Cao'e River as the new border, they may be afraid of endless violations of the East Bank people. Because of this, after dawdling for a long time, the Hangzhou Daying side of the Qing Dynasty finally sent an envoy to negotiate peace with the east bank side, so that "the two countries will live forever" and the people will no longer suffer from "the pain of war." ".

This sounded nice, but it couldn't hide the weakness of the Qing side under repeated attacks from the people on the east coast.In other words, once the people on the east bank assembled a relatively elite tens of thousands of horses and at the same time grasped the strategic initiative (using the navy to confuse and disperse the Qing army), the Qing would probably only face one humiliating defeat after another.Therefore, after realizing this painful fact, the Qing court sent envoys here to tentatively propose the sincerity of the peace talks to the east bank.

Originally, they might not have had much hope, because in the past, the people on the east coast often bluntly rejected their requests for peace, but who would have thought that they would get a positive response from the east coast this time, which made them surprised, but also a little happy.After all, the current situation facing the Qing Dynasty is not very good. There are not small threats from the east, northwest, and south. It is definitely a good thing for them to be able to solve the threat in one direction, although they may still dare not move to station The army on the border with the east coast, but at least there is no need to invest more here, isn't it?

The main reason for Ma Wenqiang of the Southern Pioneering Team to start the war before was to collect people. Now the remaining population in Ningbo is more than enough to last him until the end of his term.Therefore, he does not want any more troubles or unexpected situations to occur during his term of office. It is his greatest requirement to get through it smoothly.Therefore, after receiving the peace talks signal from the Qing court, he thought about it for a day, and then agreed in principle, and authorized Lieutenant Colonel Sun Wu, director of the East Shaoxing Military Management Office, to handle the matter on his behalf.

In fact, the so-called peace talks between the two sides have nothing to "discuss" in terms of the boundary, because the Cao'e River is already the natural boundary line between the two countries, and there is nothing to modify.The two sides talked more about business and trade, because this is the basis of the peace talks between the two countries proposed by Ma Wenqiang, that is, peace is possible, but the border cannot be closed, and the east and west halves of Shaoxing must be able to conduct normal For trade, the Cao'e River should also be able to navigate freely.

In fact, the Qing Dynasty was not very happy to open up trade between the two countries.They are not stupid, and they know that once they open this hole, with the reputation of the East Coast people being good at business, they will definitely make a fortune in this trade.In that case, it may be difficult for the Qing court to control the situation. They are still in the agricultural society, and they are not suitable for everything in the commercial society. There must be many loopholes in management, and they may be infiltrated by people from the east bank at that time. into a sieve.In the future, once the swords and soldiers between the two countries are raised again, maybe as soon as the army on the east coast lands, many rich and wealthy businessmen from all over the country will respond with troops, so what's the point of playing!

However, this matter is actually out of their hands.The people on the east coast considered opening up the so-called Cao'e River trade as part of the peace talks, so the Qing people struggled for several months, asked for instructions countless times, and finally reluctantly agreed.What Min Honggui saw at this time was that the main officials of both sides had already negotiated on principles and frameworks, and the subordinates and entourages began to discuss the details.

Once the Cao'ejiang trade is officially launched, it will be a major benefit to the integration, digestion and development of Shangyu County.For this point, Min Honggui still has a deep understanding, so he plans to focus on it in the next stage of work, so as to achieve results as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)