"From April of the forty-sixth year of the Great Qin Dynasty (1728), there was no rain for several months, there was a great drought in Shandong, the price of grain doubled, and the flow of refugees was surging, and the miasma was made."

"In May of the forty-sixth year of the Great Qin Dynasty (1728), drought occurred in Hebei and Henan, and many people and animals died; The price of grain soared, buckwheat grain was one tael or eight dollars a stone, and buckwheat cakes were counted for one tael, and they were naked in paper clothes and wrapped in machine locks to avoid frost erosion. Many people fled south across the border, or went to the coast, crossed overseas, and begged for their lives. …… Where locusts fly in a dry year and turn into a calamity, this time the plague gradually spreads, exhausting and dying. ”

"In August of the 46th year of the Great Qin Dynasty, the water sources and reservoirs such as Dianhu Lake and Suzhou Creek in Beijing dried up, and hundreds of thousands of people hoped to quench their thirst with only a few dry wells, and countless livestock died. Businesses and transportation in and around the city have been greatly affected. The water sellers in the city and on the roads raised their prices, and the buckets of water were as high as a few taels of silver. …… The area is full of thieves, and order is about to collapse. ”

……

On May 10, 1729, on a potholed official road north of Texas, a long line was slowly marching north under the scorching sun, wearing slightly shabby and messy old Qin army uniforms, carrying heavy weapons and bags, and their faces were dripping with sweat.

Heavy wagons of baggage and grain rolled over the vain dust, bringing up puffs of smoke and dust, and the soldiers looked wearily at the dry woods beside the road, stripped of their bark by the hungry, and felt no greenery or coolness, and let out a few curses in their mouths.

As far as the eye can see, the endless wilderness is gray, and everything seems to be so lifeless.

On both sides of the road, countless people fleeing south watched indifferently as the army marched. They were ragged, hungry, and looked very withered. Many of the hungry people on the ground fell to the ground, lifeless, and they did not know whether they were dead or fainted from hunger.

"Master Jun, enjoy the stuttering!" Xu was extremely hungry, and a thin middle-aged man was bold and let out a low cry of pleading.

"Okay, okay, military master, give me something to eat......"

"Please, military master, let's enjoy something to eat......"

“……”

More hungry people began to cry and plead, hoping that the convoy would send some food and some stomachs, so that after a little hunger, everyone could travel to Denglai or run to the sea.

Many people have been hungry for several days, and they have already collapsed, relying entirely on a desire to survive, holding on to their breath and going south in order to find a bite to eat and thus survive.

And the grain team escorted by the army in front of him, roughly counting, there are more than 200 carts, at least three or four thousand stone of grain. If the military master is kind, he will give dozens of stones to everyone to cushion their stomachs, and it is better to walk a little more.

Since June last year, the whole of Hebei has been cut off from rain, so that the grain output has been reduced by half. Even in the dead of winter, few snows fell, and by the beginning of spring this year, the land was parched and cracked, making it impossible to cultivate and plant, making it even more difficult for people and animals to drink water.

In May, the temperature is rising, the drought is becoming more severe, and dozens of prefectures, counties and towns are left without cultivation.

Due to the wars in Liaodong and Korea, the grain stored by the officials in various places had to be given priority to the troops at the front, so that the government had little food to give.

But the problem is that with the terrible transportation conditions of our Daqin, when the grain from Huguang and Jiangxi arrives, I don't know how many more starvations will occur!

The first to survive were the tenants and small farmers who had no grain in stock, and when the government failed to provide relief, they had to flee to the south, or fled to Shandong and Denglai, thinking that there would always be a bite to eat there, so that the family could survive.

Seeing the hungry people on both sides of the road constantly approaching the grain truck, the expression in his eyes became more and more hot, and a thousand general managers who led the team were so shocked that he immediately pulled out his waist knife and loudly ordered the sergeants to force the hungry people back and not let them get close to the convoy.

Grandma's, this batch of grain will be transported to Beijing, and then relayed to Liaodong to support the army. If you are robbed by a group of hungry people on the road, you will definitely not be able to save your head!

Under the coercion of the officers and men with knives and guns, the hungry people retreated in fear, but their eyes were still staring at the bulging sacks on the grain truck.

That's the food for life!

"Holy shit, shouldn't this Qin army kill these hungry people?" Gan Changsheng, the third-class staff officer of the Qi State Military Staff Corps in Daqin, and Captain Renyong (lieutenant), sat up from the cart, lifted the gauze that covered the dust, and couldn't help but hold a short knife under his rib tightly with his right hand, and looked at the many hungry people over there without blinking.

He is a fourth-generation immigrant from the Qi State, a native of Cao County, Xiangjiang Prefecture (now Bandebrough, Australia), whose ancestral home is a native of the Great Qin Lingnan, with a tall body and a height of 1.82 meters, which seems to stand out from the crowd in a group of Great Qin officers and soldiers. There is a slender scar on the right side of his face, which was accidentally scratched by a spike when he was chasing and killing natives in the jungles of Borneo two years ago, making his handsome face a little more rugged and heroic of a man.

In March last year, he was transferred to Qin and served as a third-class staff officer of the Military Staff Corps stationed in Qin. This time, he accompanied a few companions from Nanjing, first to Xuzhou, then to Jinan, and then followed a steady stream of supply convoys to Beijing, and finally to North Korea, where he supervised the ceasefire between Qin and Ming in the region.

Yes, under the mediation of the state of Qi, the state of Qin decided to end the "armed conflict" with the Northern Ming in the Korean region.

The damned Northern Ming used countless Korean coolies to build a large number of permanent fortresses and fortified cities in the southeast of Korea, and then laid a large number of artillery pieces in them, giving a large number of casualties to the attacking Qin army.

Confined by the narrow and fragmented terrain of Korea, the Qin army had a numerical advantage, but it could not eliminate the living forces of the Northern Ming, and because of its lack of maritime superiority, it could not achieve the goal of driving the Northern Ming army out of Korea through a long-term siege.

Even, if they are not careful, the Qin army, which lacks the maintenance of the rear road, will be launched by the Ming army by sea to launch a landing battle, thus cutting off the supply line of the army in front and allowing the other party to fight a perfect war of annihilation.

As for the rugged and densely forested Hamgyong Province in northwestern Korea, the Ming army was even more helpless. After decades of operation, the Ming army occupied almost all strategic points in Hamgyong Province, supplemented by a number of fortified fortresses. This is not something that the Qin army, which has poor logistics, can easily gnaw on.

Moreover, there were still a large number of feudal soldiers in the Ming army, like those fishskin tartars decades ago, who were extremely good at fighting in jungles and mountains, and they were not afraid of death, wielding a few knives and carrying a few bows, they dared to launch a surprise attack on the Qin army with several people.

It can be said that the Qin army fought extremely passively in Korea, and many times had to risk huge casualties to launch a cluster attack on the fortress defended by the Ming army, so that the battlefield exchange ratio was very ugly.

Originally, it was thought that the Qin army could rely on the continuous supply of domestic military strength to supplement its advantages and fight with the Ming army. Even if two or three are exchanged for one of you, the population of your Beiming is only more than one million (plus the naturalized feudal lords and Japanese, in fact, the population of Beiming has reached two million), and the number of troops is not much.

Unexpectedly, the Ming army didn't seem to be afraid at all.

The Ming army first got a large amount of cannon fodder from Japan, armed them a little, and then trained them roughly, and then transported them to Korea one by one. In each fortress and stronghold, there were often only a dozen or so Northern Ming officers and soldiers, but hundreds or thousands of Japanese cannon fodder were driven to fight with the Qin army.

The war has been fought for more than a year, and the cannon fodder has also consumed eight or nine thousand, probably because it is too troublesome, and the Beiming government simply pushed the North Koreans to the front.

Lee Lin-sak, the governor of the southeastern region of Quanzhi, proclaimed himself the king of Silla last year, and was soon unanimously recognized by the Northern Ming, Dongdan, and Balhae kingdoms.

Since I want to stand on my own, I can't gather troops and horses to go to the front!

Tens of thousands of Korean soldiers were pushed in front of the Qin army under the coercion of the Northern Ming army. Although their combat strength was weak and they did not dare to engage the Qin army in a field battle, they were barely competent to defend the cities and fortifications, and under the cover of artillery and muskets, they could fight an offensive and defensive war of attrition with the Qin army.

Before enough, in the face of excessive losses in the army, the Qin army gradually felt unbearable, so they pulled up the troops of the Korean Kingdom, mixed part of the main force of the Qin army, and repeatedly fought with the Ming army in the southeast of Korea.

The two sides coerced each other to fight the Koreans on the peninsula for more than a year, and the losses were heavy, coupled with the fact that the Northern Ming, Dongdan and Bohai countries had another game in the two river basins (Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers), which put the Qin army's logistics and supplies under great pressure.

In November last year, Qi intervened to mediate, hoping that the war would stop and peace would be restored in Northeast Asia, so as not to affect commercial activities and people-to-people exchanges throughout the region.

Although the three northeastern kingdoms led by the Northern Ming Dynasty took advantage of the geographical convenience to inflict a large number of casualties on the Qin army, they also took the opportunity to attack the hinterland of Liaodong and plundered back countless assets and a large number of people, and the whole situation looked extremely favorable. However, after all, its size is too small to last, and if it were not for the millions of yuan of financial loans and many material supports provided by Qi State, I am afraid that it would not be possible to achieve a two-front war (the Korean battlefield and the Ussuri River battlefield).

Since Qi Guo intervened in mediation, it was naturally a happy ending. Anyway, the entire Korean region was destroyed, the three southeastern provinces were also de facto independent, and many fortress settlements in Liaodong were also uprooted by the three kingdoms.

In order to deal with the two battlefields of Liaodong and Korea, the Qin State had to stop the supplies originally supplied to the northwest and Mobei and transfer them to the northeast, causing the situation in the latter region to recur.

The Mongol tribes in several places in Mobei actually secretly contacted the Bohai State in the north under the situation of superficially submitting to the Qin State, hoping to use it as foreign aid to resist the pressure of the Qin army.

And the remnants of the Qing Dynasty who were dormant in the Khobdo area (now the Tangnu Ulianghai area) also frequently hooked up with the Mongol tribes in Mobei, bewitching the unity of Manchu and Mongolia and sharing interests.

What worries Qin even more is that the northwest region, which had a good situation before, may change again.

The Dzungar Khan king Galdan Tseling, who was driven to the Kazakh steppe by Yue Zhongqi, the general of Jingxi and the governor of Beiting, was given a rare respite after the Qin army stopped its offensive due to long supply lines and insufficient supplies.

With more than 10,000 troops in his hands, this guy suppressed the resistance of the two divisions of Da Yuzi and Zhong Yuzi in a very short time, and then sent his henchman general Celing Dun Duobu (i.e., Da Ce Ling Dun Duoke) to lead more than 4,000 troops into the old land of Yarkand (now the southern Xinjiang region), successively killed more than ten tribal leaders, slaughtered back tens of thousands, quickly pacified the local rebel forces, re-incorporated the region into the sphere of influence of the Dzungar Khanate, and threatened the Qin army from the southern flank, intending to attack from both sides and recapture Ili.

In addition, the Dzungar Khanate also penetrated from the Yarkand region to the Us-Tibet region. It is reported that Galdan Tse sent several waves of messengers to collude with the great monk of the Snow Mountain, preparing to expel the Qin army and pro-Qin forces and restore the holy land of Buddhism.

Faced with this situation, Yue Zhongqi reported to the imperial court several times, requesting more troops and war materials to prevent the Dzungar forces from revival.

If the Dzungars are allowed to recapture Ili, then all the achievements of the previous battle may be wiped out, and the situation in the entire northwest may be eroded again.

Therefore, when Qi proposed to mediate the Korean war, Qin immediately agreed and began peace talks with the Northern Ming.

However, at the end of the year, after the news of the change in the royal family of Daqi came from Hanzhou itself, the mediation was abruptly suspended, and the peace negotiators of several parties were left on the spot.

It is important to know that the changes in the political situation of Qi State, whether it is for Qin State, or for the Northern Ming, Dongdan, and Bohai States, are definitely of vital interest and should not be ignored.

The Korean battlefield and the Liangjiang Valley battlefield also fell silent suddenly, and both sides retreated their respective armies back with great tacit understanding, disengaging from each other, and waiting for the political situation of Qi to become clear.

In just over four months, first the death of the crown prince of Qi, then the return of Emperor Taiping to power, and then the establishment of the imperial grandson, the formation of a new cabinet, and finally the death of Emperor Taiping, the succession of the grandson, the political situation of Qi maintained a rare smooth transition, without any "turbulent waves".

When the news broke, some people breathed a long sigh of relief, while others shook their heads and sighed in disappointment.

Until April this year, Qi State re-presided over the armistice mediation, only more than 20 days, the two sides who could not fight quickly reached a peace agreement, the Korean region was still restored to the original state, the king of Silla County of Rausch gave up the title, and also became his former governor of the southeast, and continued to serve Korea as the lord of the country.

The state of Qin once proposed that the three northeastern countries should release all the exiled immigrants from Liaodong, but the other party refused, saying that those people had voluntarily become subjects of various countries, divided the fields, built houses, lived and worked in peace and contentment, and did not think about Qin.

What are you kidding, how can the population that you have managed to get it so hard to get it back easily!

Besides, you hundreds of millions of people in the Qin State, as for the lack of that kind of people?

Although an armistice peace agreement was signed, the two sides did not withdraw their respective troops at the first time, but continued to maintain vigilance, stationed in Korea, and waited for the arrival and coordination of the military supervisors of the Qi State, in case one side suddenly changed its mind and took advantage.

It stands to reason that Gan Changsheng and his entourage of members of the Military Staff Corps should have taken a ship to the DPRK, which is much more time-saving and labor-saving than taking the land route.

However, these "arrogant and expensive" Qi officers chose to take the land route and slowly shook all the way over.

Without him, this time he went north by land, which was actually a staff trip.

In addition to surveying and mapping the geographical mountains and rivers along the way in more detail, there is also to investigate the people's livelihood along the way, grasp the local records, and plan for the future.

With the arrival of hundreds of heavily armed Texas town troops, the noisy and restless hungry people immediately dispersed in all directions, not daring to go to the side of the road anymore, and continued to block the grain convoy. But their devouring eyes and longing look make people look at them and can't help but throb their hearts.

If there is no government relief, I am afraid that many of these hungry people will die!

But the question is, why hasn't the food from the imperial court been delivered yet?

"Sir, we can't save many people." Gan Changsheng walked behind Li Yanliang and handed him a few pieces of sugar cubes in his satchel, "As long as we just leave, these cans and sugar cubes will definitely be snatched by other hungry people." ”

Li Yanliang took the candy cube from Gan Changsheng's hand, stuffed it into the hands of several thin children, and watched them hold it in their mouths, revealing an inexplicable expression of surprise.

"Quickly kowtow to Eun Gong." Several women next to him were in tears, stretched out their hands, and took the children, knelt down, and kept kowtowing to Li Yanliang.

Looking at the kowtowing women in front of him, Li Yanliang sighed.

"My wife is pregnant again. …… By the end of the year, I will have another child. ”

Li Yanliang smiled at Gan Changsheng, then turned around and walked towards the grain transportation team.

"Your daughter-in-law is pregnant with a child, what does it have to do with these hungry people?" Gan Changsheng muttered in his mouth, turned his head to look at the hungry people in the distance, shook his head, and quickly followed.

(End of chapter)