Great time travel

Chapter 1 and Three, The Great Chaos of the Capital

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

When the Ming Empire was strong and prosperous, the area around Dagukou used to be the station of the Tianjin Navy, and the customs were tightly guarded.But in the reign of Chongzhen, when the world was in decline and the military system collapsed, there were only a few beacon towers left here.However, the private port market where the people engage in maritime trade is quite prosperous.

However, as Dengzhou town rebelled in the summer, attacked Tianjin port, and blocked the Bohai sea route, Tianjin's seaport also quickly fell into depression.

Then, about three months ago, the Dengzhou rebels and a group of unfamiliar southern soldiers landed at Dagukou, driving out the few local landlord regiments and yamen servants.Immediately, they did not occupy that private port, but chose another remote coast to set up camp and establish a stronghold.

If it was in the Taiping era, this would definitely be a major event that would shake the court in Beijing and spread throughout the world, but at this time tens of thousands of Tartars have already broken through and invaded Beizhili, and are wantonly sweeping Yongping Mansion and Shuntian Mansion. The North China Plain has turned into a large battlefield, and the Ming Empire's rule in Northern Zhili has rapidly disintegrated.Amidst the flames of war and the turmoil of war, no one cared about this small army that suddenly crossed the sea and squeezed into the battlefield.

On the other hand, this "rebel army" entrenched on the coast is also well-behaved. After establishing a port stronghold, there is no sign of further expansion of the occupied area, and even the nearest Tianjin Acropolis did not invade. Many merchant ships set up markets on this beach on the edge of the battlefield and started food business.And the price is quite reasonable-[-] taels of silver for a stone of brown rice, and five taels of silver for a stone of wheat, which are even cheaper than the grain prices in Jinan, Shandong at this time.If it is still too expensive, then there are corn for three liang of silver and one stone, and potatoes for one liang of silver and one stone to choose from.If you meet wealthy customers, you can also buy high-end foods such as bacon, salted fish, sausages, refined salt, and even confectionery here.

As we all know, in troubled times, food is the most precious, even mountains of gold and silver are not as good as mountains of rice and noodles.After hearing the news that there was a large amount of grain for sale at Dagukou, the wealthy gentry and wealthy households who fled south with their families to escape the disaster of war all made detours to replenish their "travel grain".Even the families who were planning to build a village to protect themselves sent their confidantes over to buy food—in this chaotic world, it is always right to hoard more grain and rice in the cellar.

There are also some merchants who are not afraid of death, and found that the price of grain here is actually cheaper than that in Jinan. Because the canal was cut off and the merchants raised the price, the price of rice in Jinan skyrocketed to 40 taels of silver per shi, and even started here. Buy goods from the side, and then sell them to the south to earn the difference.

As for those refugees who really have nothing, there is a way to eat if they want to eat. Dengzhou Town is currently recruiting refugees. As long as they sign a five-year labor contract, they will be able to cover food and housing: There are countless cauldrons in the "purification camp" Day and night, they kept cooking the paste made of grain bricks, seaweed, and wild vegetables. As soon as any refugees came in, they could get a wooden basin and a wooden spoon, and go to the pot to eat the hot paste.Although they had to shave their heads and take a shower before entering the decontamination camp, many refugees felt hesitant, but their hair was not as important as their stomachs, so they basically agreed.

In fact, even if there was no food supply, many fleeing people subconsciously flocked to Dagukou. Although the army is incapable of defending against the enemy and will collapse at the first touch, it is equally bloody and brutal when it harms the common people.Even places that were not directly affected by military disasters fell into extreme panic. "Bad guys" and bandits everywhere took the opportunity to stir up trouble and loot everywhere.In the panic and chaos, the common people could only subconsciously drag their children and flee to those towns and villages that were somewhat orderly.However, in those villages and towns protected by walls, food storage is also limited. In times of war, even if you have money, you can’t buy food, so you can’t accommodate too many migrants—otherwise you will wait to eat up the food storage. Let's starve together.

Under such circumstances, being able to open the Dagu mouth for food supply is like a paradise, attracting refugees from all directions.

In order to make a name for themselves, the "rebels" at Dagukou also selected a group of eloquent and eloquent refugees—all with wives and children who were taken hostage in the purification camp, and each of them was given some dry food and A dagger for self-defense, let them go around to promote and pull people's heads. Anyone who can bring back a refugee can get a certain amount of food, clothes and bedding as rewards.Under the material incentives, these refugees worked very hard, and within a month, the news that there was food at Dagukou spread throughout Shuntian Prefecture.In various villages and county towns, there were people who had exhausted their food reserves and could not find work to do. They were so hungry that they resolutely chose to bid farewell to their homes and embarked on the road to Dagukou.

Even the Ming army and the later Jin army who were fighting each other successively came to Dagukou to purchase military supplies and fodder—these warriors with knives and guns in their hands naturally planned to rob them by force at the beginning, but after a while at the beach Seeing the banners of Huang Shi and Chen Xin, and thinking of the "peerless martial arts" of this general Huang who swept the invincible opponents in Liaodong in the past and won the Jurchen every battle, and the "peerless martial arts" that entered Liaoyang and killed Nurhachi alone, he immediately felt First, the legs were weak by three points.Later, several "big iron boats" sailed into Dagukou, and after a distance of more than ten miles, they fired a round of incendiary bombs at the abandoned beacon tower on the shore as a demonstration. Dare to hit the idea of ​​this place, but started the business amicably.

——At the beginning of taking over Beijing, Huang Taiji was once complacent and wanted to send his troops to expel this group of "brave pirates" and seize the food and grass they left behind in the camp on the shore.But when he learned that the "maritime leader" who came to Tianjin to do the grain business was actually Huangshi, he immediately remembered the horrible memory of being beaten to pieces by the Changsheng camp in Liaodong in the past, and was frightened out of his wits. They didn't dare to think about Dagu anymore, and they didn't even dare to ask the Jurchen Eight Banners to come forward directly for the purchase of food, but ordered the people of Guanning Army to take responsibility on their behalf.In addition, Huang Taiji also withdrew all the Eight Banners soldiers originally stationed in Tianjin Acropolis, and transferred them to Baoding and other places that were more inland, just in case... There is no way, during the war during the Tianqi years, the entire Jurchen Any troops of the Eight Banners will be defeated in every battle once they encounter Huangshi, and they have already been psychologically shadowed by Huangshi.

At the same time, Huang Taiji even sent envoys in an attempt to recruit Huang Shi and Chen Xin to his banner to jointly fight against Daming. On the contrary, so the relationship with Hou Jin seems to be no longer an enemy.

Therefore, in order to turn the enemy into a friend, Huang Taiji generously generously gave Huang Shi and Chen Xin the titles of King of Yue and Duke of Qi respectively... and because of well-known reasons, Huang Shi and Chen Xin blindly prevaricated. This made the negotiations fruitless.

No matter what, anyway, this battle can't be fought for the time being.Therefore, relying on the huge amount of food input and the security provided by the landing force, in just two or three months, a bustling market popped up on this deserted beach.There are tea shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and even several dark kilns. It is said that there are former official ladies who are selling themselves. None worth the money.As for those women who would rather be chaste than die, of course they have already starved to death or hanged themselves.

Of course, compared with the small businesses above that are not worth mentioning, the most popular big business at Dagukou is also the main purpose of the Huameng to establish this trading base, and the population transaction is also counted... For the Jurchen Eight Banners and the Guan Ning Rebel As far as the army is concerned, grasslanders everywhere are much cheaper than gold and silver!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On the nautical bridge of a crocodile-class Russian landing ship, Wang Qiu was wearing a fleece cap and a thick military overcoat, holding a pair of high-magnification military binoculars, looking at the western horizon, gradually pouring out There are countless poor people in ragged clothes and disheveled faces.

Hundreds of these "trade goods" were strung together with ropes, and they were slowly approaching the Dagukou camp, driven by a team of cavalry from the Guanning Army.Looking carefully, they were all in rags, many of them were walking barefoot in the snow, their skin was blue from the cold... The dense crowd, and the numb expressions like zombies, made Wang Qiu see Feeling numb in the scalp and blocked in the heart.

——In order to buy enough food for the winter from the market at Dagukou, and to avoid consuming limited gold, silver and precious metals—although a lot of gold and silver was seized in Beijing, a considerable part of the gold and silver had to be used to reward soldiers and prepare After the initial negotiation with Dagu Port, Huang Taiji Khan decided to "sell piglets" wantonly and ordered the army to drive the hundreds of thousands of refugees who had gathered inside and outside the capital to Tianjin. Adults, men and women each had eight dou of wheat or the equivalent of potatoes and other "coarse grains", the elderly and children each had five dou of wheat, and the price was calculated separately for beautiful women, and they were dumped to the "maritime merchants" at Dagukou.In this way, Huang Taiji can not only obtain a large amount of military rations, but also reduce the risk of civil unrest in the Gyeonggi area.

Since it was already freezing cold, and the escorted Jurchen Eight Banners did not provide much rations, half of these refugees died on the way from Beijing to Tianjin, and many escaped halfway.It's just that human life is as cheap as grass in troubled times, and this kind of thing of plundering people is what the Jurchen Eight Banners have been doing in recent years, so no one will be sympathetic at all.Even if they were escorted by the Guan Ning Army, the refugee's experience would be even more miserable-they would be searched more carefully, and even some small items hidden close to their bodies would not be safe.In addition, the officials of the old Ming Dynasty who had just surrendered to the Jin Dynasty in various parts of Northern Zhili were also driving refugees from various counties to Dagukou, which made the population market in this place more and more prosperous.

When the refugees went through all kinds of hardships and were finally driven to the outskirts of the camp at Dagukou, a group of soldiers from the Dengzhou Army greeted them as usual. On the one hand, they counted the number of people and calculated the total price. The enemy soldiers took advantage of the opportunity to sneak attack-this kind of thing really happened several times, as for the result... The scattered skeletons and broken swords and armor outside the camp fully explained the fate of these "braves".

Therefore, the current team of Guanning Army cavalry who escorted the refugees to sell them is generally quite gentle-only when dealing with buyers.

Next, these half-dead refugees first drank a bowl of hot mush around the fire, and roasted for a while, at least they took a breath, and then they were forced to take care of them by a group of strange soldiers with short shaved hair. They cut their hair short, and then they were collectively driven into several wooden sheds to take a bath.This process is definitely not peaceful. Many people kept crying and crying, but in the face of those ferocious soldiers and shining swords and guns, everyone still had to choose to submit. In the past few months, rogues, rebels, officials The army and the Tartars took turns to wreak havoc in Northern Zhili, and the local people suffered a great disaster, being ravaged and massacred over and over again.Those guys with a particularly strong spirit of resistance had already been hacked to death by the Jurchen Tartars or the Guan Ning Army on the way.The rest are people who just want to survive and don't dare to think about anything else.

After taking a bath, their tattered clothes were collected and burned, and then they changed into blue cloth clothes provided by the purification camp.Afterwards, he was caught on the long trestle bridge, boarded the "big iron ship" moored at the port, and then passed through the [random door] secretly set up in the cabin to arrive at the immigration destination on the other side of the earth, and left forever. The homeland that has been reduced to a purgatory on earth, go to another continent to start their new life.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Watching another batch of more than 3000 new immigrants being escorted onto the ship through the surveillance screen in the cabin, Wang Qiu couldn't help sighing for a while, "...in order to recruit these [-] immigrants, there may be some people in the whole process. Tens of thousands of people will die...wouldn't it be a bit too sinful?"

"...That's a big mistake. How can you think like this? If it weren't for us, I'm afraid that even the remaining [-]% wouldn't be able to live!"

Mo Ming, Major General of the Army of the East Coast Republic, who was in charge of supervising the immigration operation, immediately retorted - 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 So he sent Major General Mo Ming over to handle the matter, "...Not to mention that the Eight Banners soldiers will massacre every time they break through the customs and go south. I remember that in history, 200 million people were killed in Shandong alone. Even if they can escape the disaster by chance, they will Then there will be a ten-year drought in the late Ming Dynasty. From Shandong to Shaanxi, no province in the whole north can escape. In addition, there will be plagues and locust plagues at the same time...It is better to let them die here meaninglessly Go overseas to fight for your life and open up living space for the nation!"

"...What you said is indeed reasonable, but what I am worried about is that in North China and Liaodong, on the one hand, the population of the Han people has decreased sharply, and on the other hand, the Jurchens, that is, the large numbers of Manchus entering the customs in the future , and then there are still a lot of Mongolians pouring in. If it is done too hard, will it lead to changes in ethnic composition? If the Beijing area becomes the territory of the Hu people, it will feel terrible."

Wang Qiu shook his head and said, "...It's great to open up new worlds, but it's still a bit unacceptable to abandon the homeland for this."

"...This is simply unfounded worry! The Mongols did not achieve such a level back then, and the Eight Banners soldiers were even more unable to do so."

Major General Mo Ming sneered at this, "...Not to mention that we will launch a fatal blow to the Houjin regime by next summer at the latest, and we will not give Huang Taiji too much time at all; People and Jurchens will eventually be completely sinicized. Even if Beijing and even the whole of North China become a horse ranch for Hu people, so what? For the size of China as a whole, there are only a few corners and corners That’s all! As long as the population of these places can be relocated to the East Coast Republic, we can recreate a Chinese civilization overseas!”

"... Overseas to recreate China? Just rely on you?" Wang Qiu was taken aback, and then burst out laughing, "...The Huamei Republic has robbed the foundation of future generations of bald eagles, maybe it can really copy a Chinese But your little territory in Uruguay, South America, is still surrounded by Portuguese Brazil and Spanish American colonies... It seems too exaggerated to say that overseas recreates China!"

——No way, although it seems that the strength of the East Coast Republic and the Huamei Republic are similar, but considering the great difference between the United States and Uruguay in later generations, Wang Qiu still habitually believes that this East Coast Republic may not have enough stamina to develop. It is difficult to compare with the Huamei Republic.

But Major General Mo Ming obviously didn't think so, "...you underestimate our development potential, Comrade Xiao Wang. It is true that the territory we actually control now is not large, and Uruguay in future generations does not have a great reputation. But This doesn't mean that the conditions of the land are bad - it's just that the Latin Americans who rule the land are too unsatisfactory. It doesn't mean that we will be satisfied with this little territory of Uruguay for future generations.

In fact, our goal from the very beginning was to seize the entire plain of the Rio de la Plata, including Uruguay, Paraguay, and northern Argentina in later generations, which is the essence of the whole of South America.Enough to build another China! "

"...Is the La Plata River plain so vast? Could it accommodate hundreds of millions of people?" Wang Qiu asked in disbelief.

"...No problem at all!" Major General Mo Ming said confidently, "...for example, in China, the area of ​​the entire Yangtze River Basin is only 180 million square kilometers, and many of them are difficult to develop. Mountains and hills, the real plains that can be developed are about half. However, the La Plata River Basin in South America has an area of ​​400 million square kilometers! The La Plata Plain, which is suitable for development into arable land, has An area of ​​150 million square kilometers! And this land is basically in the subtropical and temperate zone, and the climate conditions are better than the black soil in Ukraine and the three northeastern provinces. Looking at the entire South America, there is no better land than here. It is the Central Plains of South America!
As long as we Chinese occupy this fertile land, we will definitely become the masters of the entire South America in the future..."

"...is it so powerful? But since this land is so blessed by nature, why doesn't it have any powerful characters in our history?"

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

"...Brazil? This country just looks big on the map! In fact, it doesn't have the basic conditions to become a big country! To give a similar example, in Asia, how many times is Outer Mongolia bigger than Japan and South Korea? But there are Who thinks that Outer Mongolia can be compared with Japan and South Korea?"

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