Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 873 Southern Theater ([-])

Ricardo judged that these poor households would gradually get closer to the people on the east coast after obtaining the land they needed to live on, and this was partially confirmed in some areas.After many poor people took over the land, it basically meant that they had completely offended the country leaders such as patriarchs and elders (usually local gentry, who were naturally close to the Qing court), if there was no East Bank With the endorsement of the army, they may be wiped out in minutes.

In terms of supporting these people, the East Coast Army is also unequivocal: the Fourth Division, the Sixth Division of the New Army, the Fifth Battalion of the Standing Squad (reorganized from [-] German mercenaries), and the South African Eight Banners New Army have almost There is no day off, they traveled around for several months, strictly enforced the law of continuous sitting, brutally suppressed various rebellions, and dealt with various murders. While gaining a reputation as "tyrannical", they also severely stopped the gentry from counterattacking The tide basically stabilized the situation.

And once the situation stabilizes, time will be on the side of the East Bank.As time goes by, the poor who have been allocated land will gradually gain a foothold. They are the basic base of the East Bank, and they have formed a community of interests with the East Bank people. Coupled with the veterans who are the leaders of the villages in the countryside, this is It means that the tentacles of the people on the east coast have gradually penetrated into the countryside, and their control has been greatly enhanced.Over time, with the establishment of education, industry, and commerce, the local traditional gentry will be gradually squeezed out of the mainstream social circle, their influence on the local area will be greatly weakened, and eventually they will become dispensable figures. become a threat again.

This is the case in Yin County, and other counties are also gradually implementing such policies. For this reason, Liu Haiyang, Wei Boqiu and others even plan to ask Shao Shude to move a group of immigrants from other places to this place in order to change the local population structure and break the entangled network of forces.However, due to various factors, other counties did not have such great "achievements" as Yin County at the moment, but with the arrival of a group of Bingtuanbao cadres from the local support, I believe this situation will change.

It is said that the student regiment system established by the East Coast people is really the biggest stroke of genius since time travel.These apprentices, who are mainly children aged 7-12 (most of them are bought orphans), have gone through ten years of closed learning and training, and everyone has mastered knowledge far beyond the average level of this era, and Personal combat skills and the spirit of unity and cooperation are also quite good, and they are powerful weapons for the executive committee to control places.

The Bingtuanbao established in Luoqia County currently graduates 1000 students every year, of which about 39% are military-oriented. The executive committee will almost all of the 49 regiment graduates (graduated in 40) and 50 The military students in the regiment (graduated in [-] years) graduated ahead of schedule. The two jointly formed a team of more than a thousand people and sent them to Ningbo. A few days ago, they had already boarded the second domestic steam-powered ship "Tierra del Fuego" "The ship landed in Dinghai Port.

These cadres are young and strong, have quite good skills, have a strong will to fight, and have a high spirit of unity and cooperation.And after ten years of closed brainwashing education, they are also quite loyal to the Executive Committee. Their joining the military and political system in the Blackwater area will be of great help to the implementation of the Executive Committee's will, and it can also effectively deter Some ambitious guys.

For the arrival of this group of cadres, Shao Shude is the most welcome, Mao Desheng expressed limited support, Liu Haiyang is noncommittal, Wei Boqiu does not quite agree-but this is not what he can resist, the first foothold of this group of cadres is Dinghaigang .They will first conduct restorative training in Dinghai County, and at the same time learn various local knowledge to prepare for the full takeover of the local area (military management) in the future.Of course, during the training and study period, the more than 1000 students who have been training together for ten years will arm themselves to the teeth, and then go to the local area to suppress some "lawbreakers".Some of the "lawbreakers" captured by them were exiled to Sakhalin Island and the Four Villages of the Amur River, and those with lesser circumstances would stay in the local saltworks as coolies.

At present, the major salt farms in Dinghai County, which have been abandoned for a long time, have resumed production. In addition to being used for local consumption, the largest part of the salt produced is naturally exported to Dabo and Heishui counties.As the fishery production in these two counties becomes more and more prosperous, the demand for coarse salt that can pickle seafood is also increasing, which puts forward higher requirements for the production of the salt farms in Dinghai County.

As we all know, the salt field is a place that is extremely labor-intensive, and Ningbo Prefecture experienced a lot of population loss after the war in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, so the increase in production has been very limited.To put it bluntly, fortunately, the successive gentry riots in various places gave the people on the east coast an excuse to send a large number of captives to the saltworks to work as coolies. Otherwise, the saltworks in Dinghai County would not resume production so quickly.

In fact, it is not only the salt field, but the production of tea, sericulture, cotton and the most important staple food in the counties under the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture. Which one is not the most labor-intensive industry in this era?For example, the tea farms on the east bank were the first to restore production order—now many tea farms in the Siming Mountains and Tianmu Mountains that belonged to the Qing court generals have been nationalized—a total of 30 million yuan of tea was exported to the east coast last year. , but these tea farms "consumed" thousands of laborers.As the consumption of local tea on the east coast increases year by year, I believe that the number of laborers needed for these tea farms will increase day by day. However, Fenghua County is a small county with a population of only 8 to [-] people. Where can such a large number of laborers come from? Woolen cloth?Shouldn't you be farming?

But stop farming. This seems to be an idea, and it is also a concept vigorously promoted by the government of the Blackwater Pioneering Team. This concept originated from the design of the single economic system of the colonies by the Executive Committee, that is, the economic system of each colony is the most important. It’s extremely single, once you leave the east coast, you may fall into economic collapse or long-term economic pain such as "lost N years", so as to ensure that the east coast can capture the most lucrative profits in the industrial chain.

Heishui is thousands of miles away from the mainland on the east coast, and generally speaking, it is not suitable for this kind of economic system, but if it is improved and complements the economy of Heishui and other places, it will not be without benefits.For example, Yin County, with the most fertile land and the most complete water conservancy facilities, can focus on grain planting and sericulture; Dinghai County has many salt farms, so it can export salt and various pickled products. Of course, farmers can also develop The sericulture industry is, after all, a commodity that is in short supply. Fenghua County, as a whole, will be dominated by sericulture and tea industries. As for the grains and salt needed for daily life, they can be imported from neighboring counties.

And if we regard the counties of Ningbo Prefecture under the rule of the Dong'an people as a whole and participate in the operation of the entire black water economic system, we can find that the entire Ningbo Prefecture (including Ninghai County, Taizhou Prefecture, which has already been occupied, a total of Six counties and one guard, Guanhaiwei has been occupied by the Qing army) exported grain, raw silk, tea, bamboo, salt and some handmade products to northern Shandong (including Jeju Island, Busan, Wonsanjin, etc.), Heishui area, and imported from the north at the same time Cement, lime, metal utensils, canned food, salted fish and bacon, seafood, leather, livestock, medicinal materials, high-quality furniture, large wood and some handicrafts. Generally speaking, the trade between the two sides is roughly balanced, and Ningbo Prefecture is slightly ahead. , but there is no doubt that the economies of the two places are very complementary.

If the government guides and vigorously develops it, within ten years, it will inevitably gradually affect the production, lifestyle and social atmosphere of millions of people in the two places.And with the passage of time, these subtle influences at the economic level will eventually deeply affect every corner of society, making the entire region including Ningbo Prefecture, Dengzhou Prefecture, Laizhou Prefecture and the Blackwater Islands and the ancient land of the Central Plains gradually They are out of place, so that the rule of the people on the east coast can be considered truly stable.As the so-called economic base determines the superstructure, only when the economy of these areas is dominated by industrial and commercial capitalism will there be no soil for the survival of the enemy.

The only thing to worry about now is that before the East Coast system was truly established and stabilized, it would be forcibly broken by powerful foreign force, and then everything would return to the original state.Therefore, what people on the east bank need to do now is to desperately resist the offensive of the brigade of Qing troops in the west and north, and then suppress the internal rebellion, carry out social reforms step by step, and finally use it for their own use.

Judging from the current situation, the problem in the west is not big. The troops led by Dashun Liu Guochang and Liu Shijun, with the cooperation of the army on the east bank, rely on the two bastions equipped with a large number of artillery, the Chestable Fort and the Tianluo Fort. , and the naval shallow-water gunboats that came to support from the Cixi River at any time, firmly blocked the Qing army in Yuyao County.

However, in Guanhaiwei and Cixi County in the north, the situation is not very optimistic. Ding Weiyue's 3000-man [-]th Division of the newly-built army was defeated by the Qing army with bronze artillery in Guanhaiwei, and hundreds of soldiers were lost.Now Master Ding has retreated to Cixi County with the remnants of his troops, relying on the city wall to hold on, and Liu Haiyang, who was sitting in the rear, was also surprised when he heard the news, and immediately dispatched the fifth brigade of the German mercenaries to rush to help Cixi to resist The possible offensive of the Qing army.At the same time, the navy also pulled out several warships and went deep into Hangzhou Bay, deliberately letting the Qing army see them, so that they had the idea that the army on the east coast might wait for an opportunity to land, so as to contain some of their troops.

All in all, the situation of the people on the east coast in eastern Zhejiang is still very delicate. There are gentry and landlords making trouble inside, and the Qing army brigade is coercing outside.But generally speaking, Liu Haiyang, Wei Boqiu, Huang Yi and others can barely cope, and the situation is still in a controllable state. As time goes by, Ningbo Mansion will become farther and farther away from the Qing court, and eventually it will become a place where people from the east coast can control themselves. The power of resource utilization.

(End of this chapter)