With the migration of the people of Jiading and Songjiang to Chongming, it can be said that the population density of the island is already very large. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoAfter all, Chongming is a sand island, although the area is large, most of the places are very desolate, half of the area is tidal flats, reeds and aquatic plants are abundant, not very suitable for human habitation. Now that such a large number of people have poured in at once, it is basically impossible to feed such a huge population with the output of Chongming Island. As far as food is concerned, the total number of soldiers and civilians on the island is nearly 300,000, and the annual rice needs at least 1.5 million stones. And even if Chongming's fields are developed, it is impossible to feed such a large population.

Fortunately, in the past month or so, Ren Siqi has successively obtained a large amount of grain in Jiading and Songjiang, and grabbed more than 200,000 stone in the Taicang shipping warehouse alone, and now the island's grain reserves add up to nearly one million stone, which is enough for the soldiers and civilians on the island to eat for more than half a year.

However, in order to get this batch of grain, a large amount of silver was also spent, and the price of grain during the war was much higher than usual, and now the autumn grain has not come down, and the grain in Songjiang and other places has reached two taels of silver and one stone, and more than 1.5 million taels were spent on the purchase of grain before and after, which made the silver reserves in Ren Siqi's hands drop sharply.

During this time, the purchase of grain, copper, iron, charcoal, cloth, and other materials was spent, and the silver was spent like flowing water. Of the more than 3 million taels of silver obtained from raiding in Yangzhou, there are less than one million taels left. And such a large Chongming expenses are extremely large, the officials' salaries, the soldiers' salaries, these add up to at least 200,000 taels of silver a month, and the silver deposits on the island can't support half a year.

Although Daishan still has a million taels of silver left over from last year's sea trade, and the fleet to Japan will return in the winter to make new profits. However, it is not so easy to rely on sea trade to feed the growing power, and according to the trade share of the Japanese routes that it now occupies, it would be good to earn 100,000 taels of silver a year.

Why is the Chongming army disciplined and brave in battle, because the high salary relieves them of their worries, and there is no problem for one person to serve as a soldier to support the family, and even if he dies in battle, the pension he gets is enough for his family to live.

Why the people on the island settled down so quickly is inseparable from the large-scale bereavement of the Chongming government. When the people of Yangzhou and Jiading Songjiang had just arrived in Chongming, where there was a way to make money, the government organized them to open up wasteland, build roads and embankments, dig irrigation rivers, and then pay them grain as payment. And the food that can be earned to survive is what enables the newly relocated people to quickly settle down.

And all this needs a lot of money to support. And with Chongming and Daishan Island's current money and grain reserves, they can only support seven or eight months. Seven or eight months later, after the wealth obtained from the raid of the big households in Yangzhou was spent, and the silver taels earned by the sea trade could not support the expenses of so many people, then the Chongming army would become very difficult.

So now if you want to maintain the growing power, there are not many roads in front of Ren Siqi. One is to quickly open up new sources of wealth in the next few months, relying on sea trade is not enough, unless you can defeat the Zheng family to dominate Japan and the South China Sea route, then the silver earned is enough to feed a million people, but with the current strength of the Chongming army, it is impossible to defeat the Zheng family, unless there are major changes. According to Ren Siqi's memory, a year later, Zheng Zhilong would surrender to the Manchu Dynasty, and the Zheng family's power fell into chaos. But even at that time, the strength in the hands of the Zheng family was still very strong, and it was not easy to shake it, and the move of attacking the Zheng family would inevitably make the Manchu fishermen benefit, which Ren Siqi did not want.

The other way is to lay a real territory in the next six months, a territory that is enough to feed an army of 100,000 people and 200,000 people. Chongming is narrow and not enough to be the foundation. And with the real territory, there is also the foundation of expelling the Manchus to dominate the world. Ren Siqi is now recruiting troops on a large scale, casting artillery and muskets, and spending huge sums of money to make armor and various ordnance, the purpose of which is to increase his strength as soon as possible, so as to lay down a real territory, as for the target of the attack, Ren Siqi has a certain number in his heart.

In addition to all kinds of things on the island, there are other things that make Ren Siqi quite worried, that is, the war in Jiangyin.

Nearly two months have passed since Jiangyin's uprising. The 10th day of Yangzhou, the 3th massacre of Jiading, and the 81st day of Jiangyin are the nightmare of the Han nation. It is the shame inflicted on all the Han people by the alien race, and in this massacre after massacre, the backbone Han people shed all the blood on their bodies. Shi Kefa, Yan Yingyuan, Chen Mingyu, Zhang Huangyan, Li Dingguo, when the heroes of these Han people fell one after another, the entire nation sank into darkness for nearly three hundred years.

The backbone of the people died in battle, leaving only the weak to succumb to the sword of the Tartars, shaved off the hair given by their parents, tied up the pigtail of money, and knelt at the feet of the conquerors as slaves to achieve the integration of the nation.

The reason why Ren Siqi first aided Yangzhou regardless of casualties, and then went to Jiading, was that he didn't want to see the massacre in history appear in front of him again. But with the current strength of the Chongming army, it can't save all the people who were slaughtered. Although the three massacres in Jiading have not been reproduced, there are still tens of thousands of righteous people in Suzhou, Kunshan, Wuxi, and Changshu who died under the butcher's knife of the Qing soldiers.

But only Jiangyin, Ren Siqi will definitely not sit idly by. Previously, he had sent Liu Zhaoji's officers and soldiers of the Third Town to Changzhou, and the order he gave was to assist Jiangyin as much as possible. In the past month or so, a large amount of materials have been transported from Chongming to Jiangyin along the Yangtze River. With Chongming's assistance, I believe that Jiangyin can hold on for a longer time than in history.

But Jiangyin is a lonely city and a small city after all, and it is impossible to resist the attack of hundreds of thousands of Qing troops. In the early days, when the Qing army did not have many siege troops, the materials aided by Chongming could still be sent into the city, but now, under the siege of the Qing soldiers on all sides, even if the people in the city can hold on, when the food is exhausted, there is still only one death waiting for the people in the city.

We must find a way to lead the people of Jiangyin to retreat! After consulting with Li Yanzhi and others, Ren Siqi issued an order, ordering Mao 18 as the commander to lead 500 warships to Jiangyin, meet Liu Zhaoji, the third town, and jointly respond to the retreat of the people of Jiangyin.

At the same time, he ordered Shen Tingyang, the prefect of Chongming, to recruit and transfer people to build houses and residences for the new people as soon as possible. It is estimated that at least 50,000 or 60,000 people have been evacuated from Jiangyin, and building houses for so many people is not an easy task. Fortunately, now there are manpower and craftsmen on Chongming Island, as long as the money and food are in place, everything is fine. (To be continued.) )