Chapter 103, the Great Brawl of the Beijing Division (II)

At the end of November of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Tianjin, Dagukou

In the era when the Ming Empire was strong, the area around Dagukou used to be the station of the Tianjin Navy Division, and the customs were tightly guarded. But in the Chongzhen period when the world was declining and the military system was collapsing, there were only a few beacon towers left. However, the private port market for private maritime trade is quite prosperous.

However, as the town of Dengzhou rebelled in the summer, attacked the port of Tianjin, and blocked the Bohai Sea route, the seaport of Tianjin also quickly declined.

Then, about three months ago, the Dengzhou rebels and an unfamiliar southern army landed at Dagukou and expelled the few local landlords and yamen officers. Immediately, instead of occupying the private port, he chose another deserted coast to set up camp and establish a stronghold.

If it was in the Chengping era, this was definitely a major event that could shake the Beijing court and spread the world, but at this time, tens of thousands of Tartars had broken through the customs and invaded Beizhili, and were wantonly sweeping Yongping Mansion and Shuntianfu, and the entire North China Plain became a big battlefield, and the rule of the Ming Empire in Beizhili had rapidly collapsed. In the midst of the fires and smoke and the chaos of soldiers, no one could care about this small force that suddenly crossed the sea and squeezed into the battlefield.

On the other hand, this "rebel army" entrenched on the coast did not show any signs of further expansion of the occupied area after establishing a port stronghold, and did not even attack the nearest Acropolis of Tianjin, but gathered a lot of merchant ships, set up a market on the beach on the edge of the battlefield, and started a grain business. Moreover, the price was also fairly fair -- ten taels of silver for one stone of brown rice, five taels of silver for one stone of wheat, which was lower than the price of grain in Jinan, Shandong Province at this time. If it's still too expensive, then there are three taels of corn and one stone of silver, and potatoes of one or two pieces of silver and one stone of potatoes to choose from. If you have a lot of money, you can also buy high-end foods such as salted meat, salted fish, sausages, refined salt, and even confectionery.

As we all know, in the troubled times, food is the most valuable, even gold and silver mountains are not as good as rice mountains and face mountains. After learning the news that a large amount of grain was sold in Dagukou, those wealthy gentry and wealthy families who fled south with their families to escape the scourge of war made a detour to replenish the "traveling grain". Even those who were ready to settle up for self-protection sent their henchmen to procure grain - in today's chaotic world, it is always right to stock up on more grain and rice in the cellar.

There were also some merchants who were not afraid of death, and found that the price of grain here was actually cheaper than that of Jinan -- because of the cut off of the canal and the increase in the price of profiteers, the price of rice in Jinan had skyrocketed to 40 taels of silver per stone, and they even began to come here to buy goods, and then sell them to the south to make the difference.

As for those displaced people who really have nothing, there are ways to eat if they want to have enough to eat -- Dengzhou Town is currently recruiting displaced people, and as long as they sign a five-year labor contract, they can be fed and sheltered: countless cauldrons in the "purification camp" are boiling paste made of grain bricks, seaweed, and wild vegetables day and night, and any homeless person can get a wooden basin and a wooden spoon as soon as they come in, and go to the pot to get hot paste to eat. Although many homeless people were hesitant to shave their heads and take a bath before entering the purification camp, their hair was always less important than their stomachs, so they basically agreed with a little effort.

In fact, even if there was no food supply, many fleeing civilians subconsciously rushed to Dagukou -- this autumn in the Beizhili Plain was really full of war, and the Jurchen Tartars were certainly burning, killing, looting, and doing all kinds of evil, and although the officials and troops of the Ming Dynasty were incompetent to resist the enemy and were about to collapse at the first touch, they were just as bloody and ferocious as they were to harm the common people. Even places that were not directly affected by the military disaster fell into a state of extreme panic, and "gangsters" and bandits from all over the country took advantage of the opportunity to stir up trouble and rape and plunder everywhere. In the panic and chaos, the common people can only subconsciously drag their children and flee to those towns and villages that have a little more order. However, the villages and towns protected by the walls also had limited food stocks, and in times of war, they could not afford to buy food, so they could not accommodate too many outsiders - otherwise they would have to starve to death together when they ran out of food.

Under such circumstances, the opening of the Dagu Mouth for the supply of food is like a paradise, attracting displaced people from all over the world.

In order to make a name for themselves, the "rebels" in Dagukou also selected a group of articulate and eloquent refugees -- all of whom had wives and children and children who had been held hostage in the purification camps, and each of them was given some dry food and a dagger for self-defense, and asked them to go to various places in the surrounding areas to carry out propaganda and pull people's heads, and anyone who could bring back a refugee could get a certain amount of food, clothing, and bedding as a reward. Under the material encouragement, these refugees worked very hard, and within a month, the news that there was food to eat here in Dagukou spread all over Shuntianfu. In various villages and county towns, every day there are people who have eaten all the stored grain and can't find work to do, and they are so hungry that they can't survive, so they resolutely choose to bid farewell to their homes and embark on the road to Dagukou.

Even the Ming army and the Houjin army in the war also came to Dagukou to purchase military rations and straw - these warriors with swords and guns in their hands naturally planned to use forcible robbery at first, but as soon as they saw the banners of Huangshi and Chen Xin on the beach, they remembered that this Huang general swept through Liaodong in the past and had the reputation of being defeated in every battle by the Jurchens, and there was also a horse into Liaoyang and the "peerless martial arts" of killing Nurhachi alone, and he suddenly weakened his legs by three points. Later, after several "big iron ships" sailed into the mouth of Dagu and fired a round of incendiary bombs at the abandoned beacon tower on the shore as a demonstration, no army leader dared to attack this place, but started to do business in harmony.

-- At the beginning of his reign in Beijing, Huang Taiji was complacent and wanted to drive out this group of "daring pirates" and seize the grain and grass they left in the camp on the shore by the way. But when he learned that the "maritime chief" who came to Tianjin to do grain business turned out to be Huangshi, he immediately remembered the terrifying memory of being beaten and disintegrated by the Changsheng Camp in Liaodong in the past, and was so frightened that he didn't dare to fight the idea of Dagukou again, and even didn't dare to let the Jurchen Eight Banners come forward directly to buy grain, but ordered the people of the Guanning Army to take charge of it. In addition, Huang Taiji also withdrew all the Eight Banner soldiers originally stationed on the Tianjin Acropolis and transferred them to Baoding and other places further inland, just in case...... There is no way, in the war during the Apocalypse, any army of the entire Jurchen Eight Banners will be defeated in every battle once it encounters Huangshi, and it has been psychologically shadowed by Huangshi.

At the same time, Huang Taiji even sent envoys to try to recruit Huang Shi and Chen Xin under his banner to join forces against the Ming Dynasty - according to the information obtained by the Later Jin Kingdom, these two old rivals also pulled the flag to create a rebellion against the Ming Dynasty, so the relationship with the Later Jin Dynasty no longer seems to be an enemy.

Therefore, in order to turn enemies into friends, Huang Taiji was very generous to others, and gave Huang Shi and Chen Xin the titles of King of Yue and Duke of Qi respectively...... Then, for well-known reasons, both Huang Shi and Chen Xin prevaricated on this perfunctory, so that the negotiations did not achieve any results.

Anyway, this battle can't be fought for the time being. So, relying on the huge amount of food imported and the security provided by the landing force, in just two or three months, a large bustling bazaar sprang up on this deserted beach. There are tea shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and even several secret kilns, and it is said that there are also former official ladies selling themselves - in this cannibalistic world, as long as you can exchange a few handfuls of rice, no chastity is worth anything. As for those women who would rather be chaste than die, they would have starved to death or hanged themselves.

Of course, compared with the above worthless small businesses, the most popular bulk business in Dagukou today is also the main purpose of Huameng to establish this trading base...... For the Jurchen Eight Banners and the Guanning rebels, the grass people everywhere are much cheaper than gold and silver!

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On the seafaring bridge of a crocodile-class Russian landing ship, Wang Qiu wore a velvet hat, a thick military coat, and a pair of high-powered military binoculars, looking at the western horizon, and countless poor people in ragged clothes and faces like vegetables gradually poured out.

Each hundred of these "trading goods" were strung in a row by ropes, and they were slowly approaching the Dagukou camp under the drive of a group of Guanning army cavalry. If you look closely, they are all in tattered clothes, and many of them are simply walking barefoot in the snow, and their skin is blue from the cold...... The dense crowd and the numb expression like a zombie made Wang Qiu feel his scalp numb and his heart blocked when he looked at it.

-- In order to buy enough grain for the winter from the bazaar at Dagukou and to avoid consuming the limited amount of gold, silver and precious metals -- although a large amount of gold and silver was seized in the city of Beijing, a considerable part of the gold and silver had to be used to reward the soldiers and prepare salaries, and after preliminary negotiations with the Dagukou side, the Emperor Taiji Khan decided to wantonly "sell piglets" and ordered an army to be dispatched to drive the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who had gathered inside and outside the capital division in the direction of Tianjin, according to the "coarse grain" such as eight buckets of wheat or the equivalent of potatoes and other "coarse grains" for each adult man and woman. The old man and the children each had five buckets of wheat, and the beautiful women were dumped at the "maritime merchants" in Dagukou. In this way, Huang Taiji could not only obtain a large amount of military rations, but also reduce the risk of civil unrest in the Gyeonggi area.

Because it was already freezing at this time, and the Jurchen Eight Banners escorted did not give much rations, half of these displaced people died on the way from Beijing to Tianjin, and many escaped halfway. It's just that in troubled times, people's lives are as cheap as grass, and this kind of captivity and plundering of the population is what the Jurchen Eight Banners have been accustomed to doing in recent years, so no one will be compassionate at all. Even if the Guan Ning army were to escort them, the fate of the displaced people would be even more miserable - they would be searched more carefully, and even some small items hidden close to them could not be saved. In addition, the old Ming officials who had just surrendered to Jin in various parts of Beizhili were also driving the displaced people from various counties to Dagukou, making the population market in this place more and more prosperous.

When the displaced people were finally driven to the outskirts of the camp at Dagukou after going through a thousand difficulties and dangers, a group of soldiers of the Dengzhou Army came up to meet them, on the one hand, to count the number of people and calculate the total price, and on the other hand, to guard against the enemy soldiers who were escorting the enemy to take advantage of the opportunity to sneak attack -- how many times has this happened, as for the result...... The sporadic skulls and broken swords and armor that can be seen outside the camp fully illustrate the fate of these "brave men".

Therefore, the cavalry of the Guanning Army, which is escorting the displaced people to sell at present, is generally quite moderate - only when dealing with buyers.

Next, the half-dead homeless people drank a bowl of hot paste around the fire, and then roasted the fire for a while to breathe a sigh of relief, and then they were forced to cut their hair short with knives and guns by a strange group of soldiers with short shaved hair, and then they were driven en masse into several wooden sheds to bathe. There was no peace in this process, and many people kept crying and crying, but in the face of those fierce soldiers and bright swords and guns, everyone still had to choose to submit - in the past few months, the rogues, rebels, official soldiers and Tartars have wreaked havoc in Beizhili, and the local people have suffered greatly, being ravaged and slaughtered over and over again. Those guys with a particularly strong spirit of resistance had already been hacked to death by the Jurchen Tartars or Guan Ning Army on the way. The rest are people who just want to live, and the rest don't dare to think about anything.

After bathing, their rags were all taken away and burned, and then they were changed into blue cloth clothes provided by the purification camp. Next, they will be driven onto the long trestle bridge, board the "big iron ship" moored in the harbor, and then pass through the [random door] secretly set up in the cabin of Guò to arrive at the destination of the migrants on the other side of the world, and leave the homeland that has been reduced to purgatory on earth forever, and go to another continent to start their new life.

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Through the surveillance screen in the guò cabin, watching another group of new immigrants of more than 3,000 people being escorted onto the ship, Wang Qiu couldn't help but sigh for a while, "...... In order to recruit these 3,000 immigrants, I am afraid that tens of thousands of people will die in the whole process...... Isn't it too wicked? ”

“…… This could not be more wrong. How can you think that? If it weren't for us, I'm afraid that even the remaining three adults wouldn't want to live! ”

Mo Ming, a major general of the Army of the East Coast Republic, who was in charge of supervising the migration operation, immediately retorted when he heard this, because according to the prior internal negotiations of the Chinese League, the population collected in Tianjin would be exported to South America and South Africa, so the East Coast Republic of South America sent Major General Mo Ming to do business, "...... Not to mention that the Eight Banners had to massacre every time they broke through the border and went south, I remember that in history, 2 million people were killed in Shandong alone. Even if they were lucky enough to escape the military disaster, and then there was a ten-year drought at the end of the Ming Dynasty, from Shandong to Shaanxi, no province in the entire north could escape. In addition, plagues and locust plagues will occur at the same time...... Rather than let them die here meaninglessly, it is better to go overseas and fight for their lives and open up a living space for the nation! ”

“…… What you say is indeed reasonable, but what worries me is that in North China and Liaodong today, on the one hand, the Han population has decreased sharply, and on the other hand, the Jurchens, that is, the Manchus in the future, have entered the customs in large numbers, and then there are many Mongols who are constantly pouring in. If it is done too much, will it lead to a change in the ethnic composition? If the area around Beijing is now the territory of the Hu people, it will feel terrible. ”

Wang Qiu shook his head and said, "...... It's great to break new ground, but it's a bit unacceptable to give up your homeland for this. ”

“…… This is simply unfounded! The Mongols of that year did not do such a thing, and the Eight Banners could not do it. ”

Major General Mo Ming scoffed at this, "...... Not to mention that we will launch a fatal blow against the Houjin regime next summer at the latest, we will not give Huang Taiji much time at all; Not to mention that these Mongols and Jurchens who entered the Central Plains will definitely be completely sinicized in the end. Even if Beijing and even the whole of North China became a horse farm for the Hu people, so what? For the volume of the whole Huaxia, it is just a few corners missing! As long as we can relocate the population of these places to the East Coast Republic, we will be able to recreate a Chinese civilization overseas! ”

“…… Overseas reinvention of China? It's up to you? Wang Qiu was stunned when he heard this, and then burst out laughing, "...... The Chinese American Republic has robbed the foundation of the bald eagle of later generations, and may really be able to copy the United States of a Chinese. But what little territory you have in Uruguay in South America is surrounded by Portuguese colonies in Brazil and Spanish in the Americas...... To say anything about overseas reinvention of China, it seems too exaggerated! ”

-- There is no way, although it seems that the strength of the East Coast Republic and the Huamei Republic is about the same, but considering the vastly different between the United States and Uruguay in later generations, Wang Qiu still habitually believes that this East Bank Republic may lack development stamina and will be difficult to compete with the Huamei Republic.

But Major General Mo Ming obviously doesn't think so," ...... You underestimate our development potential, Comrade Wang. Indeed, we do not have much territory in our hands, and Uruguay does not have a great reputation in later generations. But that doesn't mean the land is in bad condition – just because the Latin Americans who rule it are too discouraged. It does not mean that we will be satisfied with this bit of Uruguay's territory in the future.

In fact, from the very beginning, our goal was to capture the entire plain of the Río de la Plata, including Uruguay, Paraguay, and northern Argentina, which was the essence of all of South America. It's enough to build another China! ”

“…… Is that plain of the Río de la Plata so vast? Can it accommodate hundreds of millions of people? Wang Qiu asked with some disbelieving.

“…… No problem at all! Major General Mo Ming said confidently, "...... For example, in China, the entire Yangtze River basin covers an area of only 1.8 million square kilometers, and many of them are mountainous and hilly areas that are difficult to develop, and about half of the plains that can be developed are actually developed. The Río Plata River basin in South America covers an area of 4 million square kilometers! The plain of La Plata, which is suitable for cultivated land alone, covers an area of 1.5 million square kilometers! Moreover, this land is basically in the subtropical and temperate zones, and the climatic conditions are better than the black soil of Ukraine and the three northeastern provinces. Throughout South America, there is no better place to be, and this is the Central Plains of South America!

As long as we Chinese occupy this fertile land, we will surely become the masters of the whole of South America in the future......"

“…… Is it so powerful? But since this land is so blessed, how can there not be a powerful role in our history? ”

Wang Qiu still blinked in disbelief, "...... Moreover, from the map, your country is pressed against Brazil, the largest country in South America, and one of the BRICS countries in later generations. No matter how you look at it, Brazil's territory is bigger and better! ”

“…… Brazil? The country just looks pretty big on the map! In fact, there are simply no basic conditions for becoming a great power! To give a similar example, in Asia, how many times is Outer Mongolia larger than Japan and South Korea? But who thinks that Outer Mongolia can be compared with Japan and South Korea? ”

Major General Mo Ming shook his head with some disdain and said, "...... You haven't been to South America and probably don't know. Brazil, the so-called big country, has to inject a lot of water. In fact, from a strategic and economic point of view, Brazil is the equivalent of Russia in South America - the country looks huge, but there are not many places where people can actually live, and the city and population can only be confined to a small corner. Brazil's Amazon rainforest, like Siberia in South America, looks like a vast land and rich in resources. In fact, it is not a suitable place for human life at all......"