>，！

Chapter 172 - Driving Fish for the Abyss (I)

In March, the warbler flies and the grass grows.

The spring breeze blows, and the tourists are drunk. Unconsciously, Hangzhou's West Lake ushered in a bright spring. The willows on the Su Causeway pulled out new branches and danced softly, as if they were braiding themselves; The peach blossom of the lonely mountain poked out her little head and looked at the figure of the spring girl on the branch.

However, thousands of gray-headed and ragged war refugees have emerged from the northern horizon one after another, suddenly breaking into this wonderful landscape scroll, and smearing the scenery of West Lake, which is now a bright spring, with a thick haze of turbulent times.

It has been a whole year since this world-famous "paradise on earth" fell into the hands of "Australian thieves".

Compared with a year ago, Hangzhou has become much more deserted. Because the gentlemen, who are the main consumers of the country, either absconded with their families or were almost swept away by thieves, most of the most luxurious Qinglou taverns have closed down. The famous prostitutes in Qinglou, who were once bought and laughed at by high-rollers, were forced to lower their prices one after another, or redeem themselves. There are also many famous people in pear orchards, and their livelihoods have also been cut off because no one cares. And those who are engaged in the service industry, because of the great reduction in the source of customers, have fallen into unemployment and hardship one after another.

Just as every time an economic crisis came in later generations, the first unlucky city was a tourist city, and the current Hangzhou is also in a depression. Although strictly speaking, Hangzhou is not without the potential for light industry and manufacturing, in fact, it has been a famous production area of silk and tea since ancient times. But the problem is that for the Global Chinese Traverser Alliance, which was over-expanded last year and whose digestion capacity had been far overdrawn to the limit, Hangzhou was already the northernmost edge of the occupied area in South China, not to mention organizing and resuming production, and even maintaining the occupation was already very reluctant.

As a result, the Allies could only control a few major cities such as Hangzhou and Fuyang for a long time, but were never able to completely dominate the vast rural areas.

Therefore, in the past year, Hangzhou's economic situation has been very bad. Due to the killing or flight of a large number of gentry, the original mulberry and silkworm industry chain was shattered, and the local silk weaving industry in Hangzhou was on the verge of shutting down. Tea production has not been affected much, but it has not created many jobs. As a result, the remaining group of Hangzhou citizens soon began to lose their jobs in large numbers, and if the food supply of the non-Allied troops had been abundant, they could set up soup kitchens every day so that the unemployed citizens could make do with it and not starve to death, then I am afraid that a great chaos would have exploded in the city.

In the modern world, even if the people barely have enough to eat, I am afraid that when they encounter such a situation, they will already cause chaos. However, the standard of living standards of the ancient people is obviously much lower than that of modern people, as long as they do not starve to death, thank God.

Fortunately, after a period of digestion and resettlement, the republics of the Huameng League have once again regained their ability to absorb immigrants since last fall. After all, Huameng has half the world's land to cultivate, and through the 22nd century's bio-black technology, it can get endless food at any time, so there is no upper limit on the number of people it can contain. And these destitute refugees in the 17th century who were willing to do everything for food were different from the refugee grandfathers who poured into Europe in the 21st century, who would delusionally think that they would not work and only eat welfare, and rely on state subsidies to support a large family (a few scholars such as Xiucai Juren may be so greedy, but the sticks and whips of the relevant departments will soon teach them how to behave).

In the past, the introduction of immigrants was interrupted simply because the bureaucracy was too capable of housing and jobs for so many people at once, similar to the backlog of passengers at stations during the peak of the Spring Festival trains. However, as long as this peak has passed, and there will be a few more civil servant recruitment expansions to enhance management capabilities, then the work of resettlement and reclamation can begin in full swing again.

Therefore, the poor people in Hangzhou, who had no place to live, after drinking the porridge for several months without hunger, were lured by grain and silver coins to enter the Allied immigration quarantine camps, and after some screening, they received ferry tickets to various parts of the world.

Among them, the most honest fellows arranged to go to North America, and work in the lumberyards or factories of the state-owned farms under the placement of the government of the Chinese Republic; The more honest but somewhat bloody guy arranged to go to South America to build a frontier fort, and by the way, he would fight the indigenous people of India, or get to Taiwan to reclaim the wasteland, and occasionally deal with the headhunter savages. As for the most unruly thorns and ruffians, they are thrown to Africa to dig for gold and diamonds, and by the way, they play with Uncle Black, anyway, as long as you get there, you can't help it. In the end, as a pilot, a small group of carefully selected and most disciplined "excellent immigrants" were sent to the southwest of Australia, which has initially completed construction, so that this future "world capital" can be somewhat popular.

As a result, under the vigorous organization of immigration by the Allies, the population of Hangzhou quickly dropped to about 300,000. In the past, the bustling neighborhood where every inch of land was expensive is now full of large uninhabited empty houses, just like the ghost towns that failed to open real estate in later generations.

By the end of last year, the work of the immigration department in Hangzhou had come to a standstill, because the surplus population in the Hangzhou area had been basically exhausted, and the contradiction between people and land had been greatly alleviated, and there was no more potential for exploitation. The vast majority of Chinese have the idea of relocating to a safe land, and as long as they can barely get by, they are reluctant to move to other places.

Therefore, unless the relevant authorities are willing to use violence and coercion like the rogues, even if they come up with silver coins and food, they will not be able to recruit immigrants.

Regrettably, although in the eyes of modern society, the current Huameng is already in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe. However, compared with the vast majority of warlords in recent years, the upper echelons of the Huameng are still relatively disciplined, and they still can't pull down their skin to do this kind of dirty work.

But just as the immigration department of the Huameng was preparing to close the stalls from Hangzhou, the Qing army of the Eight Banners crossed the river and went south to stake the land, but in an instant millions of war refugees were created in the south of the Yangtze River, and then at least half of them were rushing across or around the Taihu Lake to Zhejiang. Especially the people of Hangzhou who fled north because they "avoided the thieves", and now they all regret turning around and fleeing back if they are not dead. Many of them fell to their knees as soon as they walked to the edge of the West Lake, crying at the rippling waters of the West Lake, thinking that they had suffered a lot of sins in the flight.

However, what these unlucky people who move back and forth don't know is that a significant number of them will have to suffer more in the future......

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

At this moment, Wang Qiu, who holds the title of the most senior commissioner, is sitting in a pavilion facing the West Lake in Phoenix Villa, overlooking the scenery of the West Lake four centuries ago with a telescope, and chatting casually with several civil servants with tired faces.

“…… In recent months, there have been enough refugees from Jiangsu Province! It should add up to more than a million! ”

Wang Qiu asked casually while drinking absolutely authentic Hangzhou Longjing tea, "...... Jiangnan shouldn't let the Eight Banners Tartars be killed! ”

“…… In fact, the total number of immigrants we recruited before and after this round has exceeded 2 million! As for Jiangnan being killed, it is impossible to talk about it, first of all, the territory of the Qing army's current scourge in Jiangnan is actually the five prefectures of Taiping Mansion, Yingtian Mansion, Changzhou Prefecture, Suzhou Mansion and Zhenjiang Mansion, and the total area of the total area is less than half of the entire Jiangnan. Secondly, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the population of Jiangnan had exceeded 10 million, and the population of Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture had reached more than 2 million. But it will definitely cause devastating damage to the local community. ”

A civil servant from the East Coast Republic of South America yawned and struck a match to light a Havana cigar, "...... Are you worried that this Qing Empire, which seems like a joke, actually turned Jiangnan into the territory of the Manchus? It's simply impossible! The Aixin Jueluo family has lost the base of Liaodong, and can only wander around in the core hinterland of the Han people, which is equivalent to becoming a rootless Ping, how can it be possible to establish a foundation in the south of the Yangtze River? At most, it was just like the Hou Jing Rebellion in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and it was just wiped out after a few years. ”

Speaking of this, he paused, opened his mouth and spat out a smoke ring, "...... From ancient times to the present, China has only been the situation in which the Hu people occupied the north and confronted the Han regime in the south. There has never been a strange thing that the Hu people have been entrenched in the south and have been in confrontation with the Han regime in the north for a long time! What's more, now that even the founding emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty has died, and the candidate for the new emperor has not been determined for a long time, maybe it will be a fratricidal battle imminently. Whether the newly born Qing Empire can barely survive or collapse is still a big question mark! ”

“…… Are you saying that we can watch the Qing Dynasty, which is as tenacious as a cockroach, self-defeating? This one...... I'm not as optimistic as you! After all, the end of the Ming Dynasty itself was an era of extreme strangeness and subversion of common sense, and the arrival of those of us who traveled through it seemed to make this era more and more strange...... For example, the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties could sit together and go to court, and three Ming emperors emerged at the same time......"

Wang Qiu sighed and shook his head, "...... Moreover, although the establishment of power by the Hu people in southern China is relatively rare, it is not impossible. I happen to know an example, that is, in the early days of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a group of Di people, well, the same clan of the former Qin Emperor Fu Jian in the Battle of Weishui, who once divided Bashu and established the Han State...... If we capture Liaodong and end up the nest of the Manchurians, it would be really strange if we only let the Qing Empire move to Jiangnan and establish it! Should it be said that the vitality of the Eight Banners is too strong, or does it mean that the combat effectiveness of the people of the DPRK is too strong? ”

“…… Well, considering the strange degree of Jiangnan scholars in the Ming Dynasty, there is such a thing as the success of the Qing court in Nanjing. It's not impossible...... Hehe, but that's ridiculous! It's even more spoof than the Roman Empire moving to the territory of the Greeks to continue the country! ”

The civil servant of the Eastern Coast Republic thought for a moment and couldn't help but laugh, "...... But that doesn't seem bad to us! There is progress only when there is comparison, and there is displacement only when there is killing! Without the mountain of corpses and the sea of blood created by the Eight Banners of the Manchu Dynasty, how can we bring out our generosity and benevolence? Anyway, whether it is the Eight Banners Tartars or the landlords and gentry, they are all objects that need to be eradicated. Only the naturalized people who have been cultivated from the displaced people are the basic plate that can be relied on. If the Qing army can really burn Jiangnan into a white field, then the displaced people created will be enough for us to conquer the Americas! ”

For this cruel statement of inhumanity and mercy, the rest of the people present almost gasped.

Indeed, for the traversers who are preparing to build a new world, the Jiangnan water town with a prosperous literary style and Huatianbao is actually a hard bone that is difficult to digest. Although it has a large population, it is tightly controlled by the landlords and gentry, both in thought and in person. Whether the traverser wants to carry out large-scale immigration or modernize the Jiangnan locality, they need to eradicate these old era readers!

In other words, whether it is the liberation of labor force or the rational use of land resources, the traverser needs to eradicate the entire landlord and gentry class and the soil of its existence, and the contradictions between the two are irreconcilable at all. And using the butcher's knife of the Manchu Tartar to eradicate the Jiangnan gentry is indeed a more convenient way to avoid staining their hands. But the problem is that in this way, there are too many people who will die in Jiangnan......

So, a moment later, someone objected, "...... Do you want Jiangnan to be smashed? If this is really done, then this land will be devastated, the people will not be able to make a living, and all the Chinese cultural heritage accumulated over the years will be wiped out."