On August 5, 1680, after dealing with the affairs at hand, Ma Wenqiang, the captain of the Southern Pioneer Brigade, arrived in Shangyu County, where the army was stationed, and met with Junio.

The original army of 30,000 troops, after two months of fighting, removed the dead and wounded in battle and those who were reduced due to illness, and then removed those stationed in various places, and now there are no more than 10,000 people left. Although Ma Wenqiang does not know much about military affairs, he also knows that they are a little tired by looking at the faces of these people, not necessarily all physical fatigue, but also psychological fatigue.

"The more than 10,000 people from Denglai should return north as soon as possible. After the Qing army knew that our army was launching an offensive in the south, they mobilized a large army in Qingzhou Mansion and launched a fierce attack on our Jiaolai Xinhe defense line. You know, it will take at least ten years for this canal to be dug successfully, and now it can't withstand too many Qing army attacks, especially since we still have a lot of laborers working on the canal construction site, and their casualties are not small in this Qing army attack. At present, the whole of Denglai has been mobilized, soldiers, food, and ammunition are constantly being transported to the west, and even the construction of the Jiaoyan Railway has been stopped, and all efforts are being made to supply the war. I haven't told Niu Gui, Dong Dalang, Xie Zhen and others about this, but the ships are already preparing in Dinghai, and at the latest, the three divisions will board the ships and leave. Ma Wenqiang shouted as soon as they met, and his tone was quite urgent, probably because of the fierce tone of Liu Jianguo's side, and at the same time, he also muttered in his heart, this borrowing army is really a lot of trouble, after all, it is not as good as his own soldiers.

"Isn't Qingguo an earthquake? How can you still have time to launch a counteroffensive in Laizhou? Puzzled, Junio asked.

"How long has it been since the earthquake, is it possible that it will be the New Year?" Ma Wenqiang spread his hands and said helplessly: "Besides, the earthquake is in Hebei and Beijing, and the number of dead and injured is only so much, which is far worse than the damage caused by the last Shandong earthquake." After the Qing State greeted its own disaster area, it was difficult to raise materials, money, food, and soldiers to fight in Shandong? ”

"Yes." Junio nodded, and said with a smile: "Fortunately, the matter is over here, and nearly 40,000 people have been killed, wounded, and captured by the Qing army and local villagers—well, about sixty percent of them are prisoners—and the money and food captured are even more incalculable." Moreover, this battle also greatly damaged the morale of the Qing army, and its impact on the future should not be underestimated. In my observation, if the two sides engage in war in the future, the Qing army's willingness to fight in the field will be very low, which should not be a bad thing. ”

"Money and food are not said beforehand, what about the population? Have you counted the total number of people collected this time? Ma Wenqiang asked in a slightly eager tone.

"About 230,000 people." Lieutenant Colonel Júneo said. He is still very clear about this number, at the beginning of their large-scale looting in the wilderness of Shanyin and Huiji counties, counting some of the people arrested outside Shangyu County before (the captivity operation in Shangyu County was terminated in time), there were 150,000 people at that time. Later, the army marched westward, captured a few more Shaoxing people who had fled westward, and then plundered the suburbs of Xiaoshan County before finally returning, with a total of more than 230,000 - of course, this figure does not include nearly 40,000 Qing prisoners.

"It's a big gain, but it's still a little far from what I imagined. The two counties of Huiji and Shanyin have a large population, and they should all flee to the south or west, and you should chase after them at that time. Ma Wenqiang said with some regret.

Junio smiled and nodded yes, but he was very unimpressed: what are you kidding, let's go to the mountains south to arrest people, what will it look like? At that time, there were only more than 18,000 tired troops on hand, and if I continued to toss like this, I was afraid that I would suffer a big loss. If these battle-hardened soldiers make a mistake, what is the use of capturing more people?

"But 230,000 is already very good, enough for our immigration needs in the next few years. In this matter, we would like to thank you, it is your excellent command work that allowed us to not only capture half of Shaoxing Province, but also successfully collect so many people, thank you. Ma Wenqiang quickly adjusted his emotions and said sincerely.

Most of the people captured this time came from Huiji and Shanyin counties, and a small number came from Xiaoshan and Shangyu. The first three places are not mentioned for the time being, but Shangyu County will be directly under the jurisdiction of the east coast in the future, and this time it was also captured during the siege, and there were probably less than 20,000 people. It is estimated that these people are unlikely to be put back again, and they should be used as future immigration reserves, which is quite unlucky.

However, fortunately, Shangyu County has been prosperous since ancient times, and the population is already very large, almost more than 100,000 people. The loss of this small 20,000 is not a big problem, not to mention that the southern pioneer team also plans to relocate part of the population of Shangyu and Yuyao counties to the Xinsheng Basin to replenish Xinchang and Shengxian. Needless to say, Xinchang County was originally transformed into a military fortress by the people of the east coast, and the population had long been relocated as immigrants, and now the residents scattered throughout the county are estimated to be less than 10,000, which is also pitiful. The people of Shengxian County were also forcibly relocated to the east bank once, that was when the east bank retreated before the battle, and then experienced the war, the current population of the county is estimated to be less than 20,000, and there may be some refugees who fled to the mountains during the war to return to their hometowns in the future, but there should not be many of them.

"Actually, it's nothing. After this battle, the army of the Hangzhou battalion of the Qing State should have been a little frightened, and the prince supervised the formation, and even cowered, not daring to fight with my 20,000 victorious soldiers, so there is no need to say anything. In the future, the two sides will take the Cao'e River as the boundary, and the Qing army should not dare to cross the border at will, and the four counties of Yuyao, Shangyu, Sheng, and Xinchang should be stabilized, and they will be well developed in the future. Lieutenant Colonel Júneo said. In fact, he is still a little proud in his heart, with this exploit, not only will the immigrants be settled in the next few years, but there will still be a lot left after deducting the large amount of money and food that will be distributed to the soldiers as trophies. This can do a lot of things, such as investing in Ningbo's industrial, commercial, transportation and other facilities, and even lending them to Denglai to fund them to complete the railway as soon as possible, and so on.

"Battalion Commander Ru, after you leave, who will take over your position?" Ma Wenqiang asked again.

"The commander of the Second Division of the Zhejiang New Army, Wang Shichuan, the commander of the Denglai River Defense, and the commander of the 11th Mixed Battalion, Major Li Zhixin, are all reliable candidates. I think that with them, there should be no shortage of commanders when a large-scale offensive is organized in Denglai or Ningbo in the future. Junio thought for a moment and replied. These people, some of them have excellent records on weekdays, some have already taken on the role of commanding everyone, and some are from their own country and have a higher status, so they are indeed good candidates to replace him in the future, after all, whether it is Liu Jianguo, Ma Wenqiang or Chen Ke, they are not from military backgrounds and are not very good at fighting. Professional things still have to be handled by professional people.

"Okay, I'll mention this to Commander Liu in Denglai." Ma Wenqiang nodded and said preciously. Subsequently, the two entered Shangyu County together, first went to comfort the wounded and sick, and encouraged everyone, and then Ma Wenqiang and Junio summoned several commanders of the servant army.

In the battle of Shaoxingfu, the divisions of the servant army played well on the whole, among which Niu Gui's ninth division and Dong Dalang's fifth division played the most outstanding, especially in Shangyu County, this kind of tough battle, the soldiers under his command have some brave men, dare to fight, dare to charge at the risk of the enemy's arrows and arrows, so they have been rewarded by the general order of Ma and Confucian, and it will also be reflected in the distribution of trophies. In addition, Xie Zhen's performance of the Sixth Division was also okay, and he could withstand it at critical moments, without dropping the chain, and it seemed that he also had the intention of separating himself from Niu Gui and Dong Dalang, and he was also praised by Ma and Confucian.

Compared with the three servant divisions from Denglai, the performance of the Ding Ji Division of the 10th Division of Dinghai and the 12th Division of Hu Xingbang, which was stationed in Changguo County as the defense area, was much worse. So much so that in the first phase of the operation, Lieutenant Colonel Júnio only asked the 12th Division to guard the general logistics base in Xinchang County, and then asked the 10th Division to escort grain and grass along the way, and the tasks were very "easy". Even in the later period, these two divisions could only do some peripheral work, such as guarding the ferry, transporting ammunition, monitoring the enemy, etc., just like second-class citizens, so when the spoils were divided this time, I am afraid that they will not be able to share much.

Ma Wenqiang is now thinking about whether to move these two divisions to the newly occupied area, so that they can face the pressure of the Qing army on the other side of the river, and his heart is tense, so that it may be beneficial to improve their combat effectiveness. For example, he planned to move the Ding Ji Division of the 10th Division to Shengxian County, and replace the military fields outside Dinghai County with recycling, but they did not dare to disobey; The 12th Division of Hu Xingbang's headquarters was originally a group of soldiers and bandits, and the improvement of combat power over the years has been very slow, and the broken place of Changguo County is also a poor county, and it can't provide them with much supplies, Ma Wenqiang pondered, simply move this division to Xinchang County, and vacate the coastal boundary of Changguo County for the development of the people on the east coast - but the geographical location of Xinchang County is critical, and Ma Wenqiang is also a little hesitant, so he temporarily plans to move the 10th Division first, and the 12th Division will temporarily move the town, and continue to nest in Changguo County first.

The nearly 40,000 captured Qing officers and soldiers were also disposed of at the same time, and in principle, part of the shortfall in the battle losses of the various departments was also made up from here, and the rest was supplemented by recruiting troops from their respective defense areas. Of course, the replenishment of the surrendered troops is also a technical job, who can be used and who cannot be used, everything must be done in accordance with the regulations, and the intelligence department will also intervene to help the ministries select.

On 7 August, three divisions from Denglai began to retreat towards the port of Dinghai. They didn't have to take the old road when they went back this time, they walked directly from Yuyao County along the mountain road, and after passing Yin County, they soon arrived at Dinghai. And the route they took this time, in the future, the southern development team will also start to renovate, the first-class national highway may be too high, but the second-class national highway is definitely inevitable, and the road repair manpower is almost complete, 40,000 Qing army prisoners are also!

In addition, if possible, the Yuyao River will also be widened and desilted. This is a long-term project, but Ma Wenqiang is very confident, this time he has plundered so much money, food, and people, is he afraid that he will not be able to rectify the canal? I am afraid that not only can the canal be repaired, but other large and small roads, wharves, salt works, stone quarries, lumber yards and so on in the territory can be repaired or expanded. Even the future development of Cixi County, Guanhaiwei and other places can sit back and relax, which makes Ma Wenqiang particularly happy.

In his plan, in the future, the six counties of Shangyu, Yuyao, Yin, Dinghai, Cixi, and Fenghua should be the core of the entire southern development team's jurisdiction, and most of the population, most of the tax revenue, most of the factories, and most of the total economy should be settled here. If you put things in order, the future is absolutely limitless. Therefore, when he was thinking about moving the 10th and 12th Divisions to the town, he didn't consider Yuyao and Shangyu counties at all, but planned to get them to the uninhabited Xinsheng Basin to develop, and this is the reason.

On August 10, after some final discussions, Ma Wenqiang officially ordered that the newly built 10th Army Division Ding Jibu be moved to Shengxian County, not the entire county, of course, but a part of the land outside the city. In addition, they were given part of the monetary compensation, which was regarded as the difference in land price between Dinghai County and Shengxian County, and the 10th Division was full of complaints, and the family members went around in tandem, begging grandpa to tell grandma that they were unwilling to move out, and the officers and soldiers also forced the division commander Ding Ji to come forward to negotiate. Ding Ji was forced to have no choice, and after talking secretly with Ma Wenqiang for an afternoon, he directly announced his resignation and went home to do business. In principle, most of the 3,000 people of the Ding Ji Division of the 10th Division were incorporated into the Fifth Division of the Zhejiang New Army, and this division was directly fully organized.

This result was something that no one had expected beforehand, but it seemed that everyone was happy. Ding Ji took a large amount of money from Ma Wenqiang as compensation, and at the same time gave him a lot of business preferences, and since then he has become a rich man, and the officers and soldiers of the 10th Division have also become reserve troops on the east coast, and their treatment and prospects are much better than before, which can be regarded as a complete merit.

As for those who replaced the 10th Division and went to Shengxian County to reclaim the famine, it became 3,500 people from Sun Shouzheng's division of the 3rd Division, and Cixi County, where they were originally stationed, was taken back by the government of the pioneer team and developed by themselves.

Hu Xingbang's headquarters of the 12th Division also happily left Changguo County, which was so poor that birds don't and didn't even have much land, to the west of Xinchang County. Ma Wenqiang assigned them a large piece of military land for them to organize and develop on their own, and at the same time guarded the flanks of Xinchang County and kept the road to Jinhua Mansion unblocked. As for the recovered Changguo County, because of the sparse population and land, Ma Wenqiang has officially decided to merge it into Xiangshan and not set up a separate county.

At this point, the various departments have basically been disposed of, and the southern development team has entered a new round of dormancy and digestion.