Chapter 545: The Storm and Clouds (Twenty)

December 16, 1675, Tongzhou.

It was snowing all night long, and the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division of the New Army made a creaking sound when they stepped on the snow. They were steaming, carrying bayonet rifles on their shoulders, and patrolling the city with their heads and chests. The people all over the city looked at these people with gritted teeth and packed up their things silently.

There is no doubt that the Chinese people are the most difficult to get away from their hometowns. Even though they are facing the notorious yellow-clothed thieves (the result of years of demonization and propaganda by the Qing court and the gentry), some people still rise up and do not want to be captured by the yellow-clothed thieves. Especially those gentry or merchants who have land and houses outside the city are most reluctant to leave their own property and can do their best. But what's the use? The yellow-clothed thieves are not easy to talk to the court. The Qing court has gradually improved the status of Han officials and military generals over the years, and the defenses of Manchu and Han Han have been reduced. The corresponding places of Han gentry have also been improved and disobeyed. There is only one fate, that is death! The series of bloody heads hanging on the city tower is a clear proof!

Therefore, in the end, more than 8,000 men, women, young and old in Tongzhou were almost escorted out of the city without leaving any land and heading to the riverside. In addition to the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division of the New Army, there were even some river bandits, water bandits, green-skin hooligans and even cults who were temporarily recruited by the East Coast people. These people were not very combat-effective, but after sending some broken cold weapons, they could perform some guarding tasks in sloppy. At worst, they could send all these people to overseas colonies to serve. If there was also the Rabaul colony of the cannibals and let them fight against the natives, the scene must be very beautiful.

"I lost the city yesterday and it was a blessing that it was during the day and didn't cause any trouble. If I broke the city late, with the virtues of the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division of the New Army, I'm afraid that some discipline incidents would have been caused." Major Junio, who walked out of the prefect's office with his hands behind his back, looked at the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division who were coming and going on the street, and asked Sun Wu, the military police officers and soldiers who were following him.

"The Ministry of Justice went to each team to count the situation last night and found that after entering the city, the disciplines of each department were implemented quite well, resulting in only 8 rape incidents, 18 illegal killings, and theft and robbery were not very frequent because of spoil dividends. The total number was only more than 100. Overall, it was very good. Whether it was the Qing Dynasty, Shun Kingdom or Ming Dynasty troops, we were the clearest, and there was no doubt about this." Major Sun Wu stood at attention and replied: "Of course, they were all exposed incidents, and it is not ruled out that some incidents were hidden because no one reported them. The Ministry of Justice also discussed with the officers and soldiers in the grassroots companies of the Fifth Division and the Seventh Mixed Battalion, but they generally did not understand the work of our military police and had an opposition. The officers and soldiers who came to attend the symposium were often appointed by the chief officers. We may not be able to hear the truth and discover clues..."

"This is enough, there is no need to be too demanding." Major Junio ​​waved his hand and said, "Those who have fought outside for many years have had devils in their hearts. Look at the French-Holland War, the Porui War, and the Faspise War, there are few who are indulging in vain? Look at the Zuo Camp of Shun Army who entered Sichuan, and they are accused of being a Tongtar. Look at the Songjiang Prefecture we had evacuated before, and the Green Camp under General Su Songchang actually robbed their own people, which is speechless. Look at the North Korea you have been to, the Imperial Camp officers and soldiers are not doing well in war, and do anyone dare to say anything when they bully the people? Forget it, it's okay to hit them a little. Everything is too much, and morale is lost."

Junio's words were actually meaningful. Because according to the news sent back by the scouts, after more than a week of trouble in the Tongzhou area, the Qing army in Yangzhou finally dispatched, and it is reported that it is coming to reinforcements from Tongzhou. The scouts reported that there were about 10,000 people in various Qing troops, but after removing the repeated and obviously false parts, the intelligence staff concluded that the Qing army was about 5,000-8,000 people, and the marching speed should not be very fast. This is because of the bad weather, and secondly, because of insufficient strength, they wanted to wait for reinforcements from troops from further places to come.

To be honest, the Qing army, which is less than 10,000, has not been put into Major Junio's eyes. In his opinion, the Qing army in Yangzhou Prefecture was backward, the tactics were outdated, and the morale was not very high. It should be because of the long-term garrison of fireworks. Therefore, he looked down on the troops that had few shots of bird guns and had less "wild" cold weapons than the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Camp, and felt that it was no problem for one of the seventh mixed battalions under his command to fight five or even more.

However, even so, he did not intend to stay here and entangle with the Qing army. Instead, he ordered the troops to speed up their movements and take them to the riverside as soon as possible to avoid dragging down the marching speed of the combat troops behind them. He estimated that with the marching speed of the Qing army, at most they had time to send the immigrants to transport ships, and they would definitely not be able to wait for the empty ships to return from Chongmingsha. Therefore, after finishing the matter in Tongzhou City, he gave up the prefecture city, and led his troops to the east, moving towards Haimen County, and eventually fought or walked there. The Qing army should have no choice but to do anything about them.

The two of them walked while talking and soon arrived at the city gate. Here, an infantry company of the 7th Mixed Battalion was maintaining order. A company commander with a fair face held a list in his forehand and shouted from time to time such as "third team" and "fifth team" and other names. Then a team of officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division in the New Army, in yellow, responded loudly, escorting a large group of people to the south. Around them, the cavalry regiment of the Fifth Division and the cavalry company of the Seventh Mixed Battalion had a total of more than 1,000 cavalry, and they also allocated some people to accompany them to ensure that once someone escaped, they could chase and chop down the people as quickly as possible to shock everyone.

Seeing this, Junio ​​nodded. There were many people here at the gate of the city, including citizens from Tongzhou City and villagers who were captured from nearby villages. They stood one by one, very crowded. Although it was winter, many people were still sweating profusely. In this case, not to mention eating anything, even the toilet became a luxury. Some people might not be able to hold it in their hearts, and their faces were squatting on the ground with pale faces. The whispers and uneasiness of the people around them spread. At this time, no one laughed at them anymore, because everyone was in a heavy mood, and it could even be said to be on the verge of collapse, because the horses and the others were staggering south under the threat of the swords and guns of the yellow-clad thief and taking that unknown journey.

"A man has reached this point, like a pig or a dog, and his dignity is gone." Junio ​​looked at the scene in front of him and said in a sympathetic tone, as if all this was not caused by him.

"Actually, I'll endure it. When I arrived in Ningbo, my life in the collective farm was still not sad. There were decent houses. At least the large thatched huts we saw in the countryside of Qing Dynasty were strong; there were strong and durable clothes that could keep warm, and those Qing Dynasty tenants who were torn clothes and shivering in winter were strong; there were enough rice, salted fish and vegetables, and food according to human hair. Well, I admit that there was no obvious advantage in this noodles, but at least they ate well in the Qing Dynasty. So, in general, after they went to Ningbo, their living standards would improve a lot, their physical fitness would improve a lot, and they would also learn some rules. In the future, they immigrated to the local area and could live a good life." Major Sun Wu said: "Actually, we are helping them, to them, although this may go against their wishes. But is this important? It's not important, haha!"

In fact, generally speaking, after these people arrive in Ningbo Prefecture, they will be assigned to many units, not just collective farms. For example, Yancheng requires a lot of labor, strong men and women do physical work, and elderly and children do more relaxed work; the same is true for construction teams, strong laborers are flattened in areas, transporting materials, old and weak picking up firewood, boiling water and cooking, and cleaning. In short, you will not be idle, but have work to do.

In recent years, the Southern Development Team has even obtained local special approvals, and some local technology-based enterprises that have lowered their confidentiality levels have also been opened here. For example, glass factories jointly established by the Development Team government and Taiwan Bank, such as building materials factories, silk reeling factories, etc., also require many people who are purely doing physical work. These people just come in and learn the rules and discipline for a few years, and then transport them back to the local area to pioneer, killing two birds with one stone.

Of course, in general, the large state-owned farms distributed on both sides of Cixi and the remote suburbs of Yin County are still the largest households that absorb labor. These people work collectively here, planting crops such as rice, wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, etc., as military supplies. Sometimes they will also produce a large amount of vegetables, fruits, and raise some livestock. In addition to supplying their own consumption, the output is basically sent to Dinghai Port to supplement the sailors of navy or immigration transport ships.

In recent years, as the source of immigration has gradually depleted, the number is far from enough to rely on spontaneous immigration in Ningbo and Denglai. In addition, many of them have gone to the Heishui pioneers in these two places, especially the salt farms, construction teams, orchards, farms, brick kilns and factories in Ningbo, which have few lands and many people, have also decreased, and later it has even affected the normal production operation. In desperation, these units wanted to hire labor locally in Ningbo, but they also encountered policy obstacles (because the Southern Development Team wanted these people to find jobs locally and forced them to immigrate in the sea), so the start of construction was quite insufficient and their income was greatly affected.

This time, Major Junio ​​led thousands of officers and soldiers of the 7th Mixed Battalion and the Fifth Division of the New Army to "continuously commit crimes" in Songjiang Prefecture and Yangzhou Prefecture, capturing more than 80,000 people (including those found near Tongzhou City this time), and there is a possibility of continued increase, so it should be able to greatly alleviate the labor gap in these units so that they will not complain continuously.

"Okay, let's not stand here, affect the work of the men. Let's go back to the magistrate's office to clean up and prepare to move the house. The Qing army is coming in full force, and although it is not difficult to deal with, I am too lazy to see them as much as they can. I should set off to Haimen County as soon as possible. Maybe I can still pick it up. There should be a lot of people there." Looking up at the snowflakes gradually decreasing in the sky, Major Junio ​​said.

"That's the reason. The Qing army from Yangzhou marched so quickly, and saw through the nature of being fierce and cowardly on the outside. It was obvious that they were not sure that the army would go deeper, for fear of being eaten by us. Okay, since they cooperated so well, we would be disrespectful, so it would be the right way to go quickly." Major Sun Wu also said with a smile.

On December 23, 1675, the Qing army did not chase after him for a whole week, which made Major Junio ​​a little lucky and disappointed. He even guessed whether the thousands of Qing troops who came first, who had been prepared for the first time, could be dispatched the next day as soon as there was a situation. As for the others, it was probably time to take off. Some of the accumulated military pay had to be paid, and weapons, fodder, and supplies had to be transported from various warehouses (provided that they had not been stolen and sold out). In addition, he had to ask the local gentry to ask for some money and grain and collect some livestock. In short, it was quite "busy". No wonder no one came here for a while, which made the vanguard of thousands of people slow down behind, for fear of being defeated if he was a leader.

Since the Qing army was so tactful, the people on the east coast were not polite. They only spent a few hours breaking through Haimen County, and then they were familiar with the road, "packed" a large number of people, property and livestock, and headed towards the seaside agreed with the navy. Then they spent about five days successfully boarding the ship and retreating to Chongming Sha. During this period, the Qing army was so weak that they didn't come to fight. It seemed that the offensive launched in Shaoxing Prefecture last year worked very well, and it really attracted a large number of Qing troops around, resulting in a very empty place.

Major Junio ​​and his 7th Mixed Battalion did not stay in Chongmingsha for long, because the combat mission had come to an end for a while, so they could just leave the Fifth Division of the New Army there to train, and there was no need to continue to intervene. Therefore, in early January 1676, he returned to Ningbo Dinghai Port and reported to Ma Qiang, the captain of the Southern Development Team.

Ma Qiang didn't care about the specific situation of their battle, but only asked about the population acquisition situation he was concerned about. When he got an accurate data from Junio ​​and calculated that the next two immigration transportation seasons (as of April 1978) could rest easy, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Now he didn't have to be assessed. The local government is now engaged in infrastructure, which is a time of extreme desire for manpower. At this critical juncture, he didn't want to go wrong, which would affect his head's perception of himself. Especially recently, he even heard from a friend's letter that the Executive Committee planned to ignore the Spanish's perception and build some ports and roads in the Pampa Plain, his sense of crisis became stronger.
Chapter completed!