The momentum is rising

June 5, 1668, Yunzhou, Changping (today's Otaru City, Hokkaido, Japan).

Deng Ziyi, the representative of the State of Qi in Yunzhou, was walking along the streets of this small town with Huang Zijia, the minister of Honglu Temple. More than 20 officers and soldiers of Yunzhou Town were guarding him on the left and right, watching the passers-by vigilantly for fear of collision.

Envoy of Qi State.

They didn't understand why this big shot from Qi State couldn't stay comfortably in the post house, drinking some wine and eating some delicious food. If he got bored, he could also find some singing girls to cheer him up. In this street market place,

What's there to hang out in?

Although Changping has always been relatively stable, and there are no vicious people who want to harm the envoys of Qi, but if some ignorant madmen or country fools offend the people of Qi, it will be very bad.

In Yunzhou, Qi people are a relatively special group. Among them are official representatives stationed in Yunzhou, Qi naval officers and soldiers stationed here, and Qi businessmen traveling to and from Yunzhou. For these Qi people, Yun

Officials from all over the state attach great importance to it. Not only do they give high standards of courtesy, but they also inform their officers and conduct inspections to provide them with safety guarantees, for fear that they will be harmed and affect the friendly cooperation between Qi and Yunzhou.

relation.

And the envoy they are protecting now is the Minister of Honglu Temple in Qi State, a high-ranking official at the ministry level, so there must be no mistakes.

The more than 20 accompanying officers and soldiers belonged to the New Army of Yunzhou Town, and they looked well-organized and well-trained.

The New Army in Yunzhou Town was established three years ago, with a strength of 2,000 people, organized into four infantry battalions and one artillery battalion. The new army was modeled on the Army model of Qi State, and was trained by instructors sent by Qi State. Even even

The style of military uniforms of officers and soldiers is also based on the Qi army. The slight difference is that the color of the military uniforms is the traditional red of the Ming Dynasty, and the military caps are not the large-brimmed hats of the Qi army, but are somewhat similar to the German pointed helmets before World War I.

Different from other troops in Yunzhou, which are equipped with a large number of cold weapons, the New Army is an all-firearms unit, equipped with the latest Qi State "Qianwu-15" flintlock gun, with a bayonet under the gun.

There are also a large number of Qi military instructors who provide step-by-step guidance on the daily organization, training, logistics, and combat skills of the troops.

During the annual "summer hunt" or "winter hunt" against Qing captives, the New Army troops, under the guidance of Qi military instructors, also displayed good combat effectiveness. Facing the Qing captive local garrison forces that were several times their own,

He can defeat them easily. Even when fighting against Qinglu elites whose numbers far exceed his own, he can still not fall behind at all.

King Yong plans to gradually dismantle and streamline the existing more than 10,000 miscellaneous troops in the next ten years, and then use the new army as the core foundation to build a powerful force similar to the Qi Army. Considering that Yunzhou is in the entire Northeast Asia

With absolute sea control, King Yong accepted the advice of Qi's military instructors and planned to temporarily control Yunzhou's land combat force to about 5,000 people, adopt the route of elite troops, and build a reserve mobilization system similar to Qi's model.

"This is the earliest seaside town established in Yunzhou. Its population has reached more than 12,000. It is considered a relatively large city in the entire Yunzhou." Deng Ziyi introduced the local situation to Huang Zijia while walking.

, "There are thirty or forty various workshops in the city, mainly engaged in handicrafts such as seafood processing, grain and oil processing, medicinal materials, pottery making, woodware, leather goods, etc."

"At present, how many people are there in the entire Yunzhou?" Huang Zijia watched the pedestrians on both sides of the street move aside, watching in awe as their group passed by, and couldn't help but feel an inexplicable joy.

"There are about 350,000 people in Yunzhou, about 120,000 people in Zhenzhou (today's Vladivostok, Russia), 40,000 people on Tamluo Island, and more than 5,000 people on Kuye Island. After all, they already have

The population is over half a million."

"Their population is growing so fast!" Huang Zijia was a little surprised, "I remember seven or eight years ago, the entire Yunzhou was less than 300,000 people."

"Last year, a rare major flood occurred in the Yellow River Basin. The river water surged and floods occurred one after another, causing millions of victims. The Huaihe River in the south also suffered frequent floods, especially Anhui. The disaster was the worst, with hundreds of thousands of victims homeless in Bozhou alone.

Return. In this situation, I will

Last year, the country gathered more than 200,000 disaster-stricken people and temporarily resettled them in Ryukyu and Annan. Yunzhou also took advantage of the opportunity to organize all maritime transport ships and took in 700,000 to 80,000 people at once. In this way, Yunzhou's people

The population suddenly jumped to half a million."

"The floods in the Yellow River should be in the Henan and Jianghuai areas of the Qinglu. There is still a long way from the sea. You go to collect the refugees, but the Qinglu will ignore you?"

"It's ridiculous." A trace of ridicule appeared on Deng Ziyi's face, "Henan and Jianghuai were flooded one after another, causing countless victims. However, the Qing Dynasty court refused to use the extra silver and grain to distribute to the disaster areas.

Instruct local governments to save themselves. You said, in this situation

How can the localities save themselves? In desperation, the Qing Dynasty officials in Henan and Jianghuai could only allow the victims to go elsewhere to beg for food. Some vicious local officials in Jianghuai even sent soldiers to drive the victims into the Ming Dynasty in order to achieve "fatigue"

The purpose of "weakening the enemy".

"When we organized the immigration fleet to arrive in Shandong and the Jianghuai coastal areas, we sent several troops deep into the Qinglu controlled areas to recruit refugees. Neither the Qinglu's local garrison nor their Eight Banners troops took any action against our actions.

Stop them and let us do what we do. I guess, in their eyes, I

We were able to ship away those refugees who had no food and clothing, which relieved their huge burden. Compared with the millions of victims in various places, we only took away more than 200,000 people. Alas, it was also

I don’t know how many of the refugees stranded in the disaster area will survive last year’s cold winter.”

"This Qing captive really doesn't treat the people under his rule as human beings." After hearing this, Huang Zijia couldn't help but sigh.

"By the way, when you go to Ningzhou (today's Sapporo City, Hokkaido) to meet King Yong, he will definitely make suggestions to you about plundering Japan and North Korea?" Deng Ziyi asked: "Because the population suddenly increased by more than 70,000 to 80,000 people last year,

Various resettlement costs

, almost all Yunzhou’s savings over the years were consumed, especially the shortage of food, cloth and other materials. In addition to asking us to increase our support, King Yong couldn’t wait to send troops out to get some to replenish Yunzhou’s empty official treasury.

."

"North Korea is a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. King Yong sent troops to plunder its coastal areas. I'm afraid it's a bit unjustifiable." Huang Zijia said with a smile: "Moreover, a few years ago, our Qi State and Yunzhou jointly defeated North Korea.

I asked him to promise never to rebel against the Ming Dynasty. Last month I visited Hanyang and North Korea has agreed to fully open its domestic market to our country. Such a submissive Ming Dynasty vassal should not bully others!"

"As for Japan, it is a big country with a population of tens of millions. If it plunders the coast of Japan and angers the Tokugawa shogunate, they might send troops to attack Yunzhou. Although we have absolute sea control, we will be trapped in a trap with Japan.

The state of war is not in line with the commercial interests of our Qi State. Therefore, we, the Qi State, cannot agree to King Yong’s suggestion."

"Actually, King Yong has certain territorial ambitions towards North Korea and Japan, and wants to gain larger territory from these two countries," Deng Ziyi said.

"Aren't there large tracts of unclaimed land on Kuye Island, Zhenzhou, and even the places east of Yunzhou (Kamchatka Peninsula)?"

"King Yong dislikes that those places are too bitter and cold, require effort to develop, and cannot support many people." Deng Ziyi said helplessly: "The southeast of Korea and the north of Japan are both places with warm climate and suitable land for farming. If

If we capture it directly, we can quickly increase Yunzhou's strength."

"King Yong is planning for the future!" Huang Zijia said: "But he is not afraid of being involved in long-term disputes with Japan and North Korea, which will weaken Yunzhou's own strength? In fact, King Yong relies on Yunzhou

, Zhenzhou and places such as Tamna Island and Kuye Island, as long as they are good

With the support of our Qi State, they will inevitably become the most powerful local government in the region in twenty or thirty years. Coupled with their slowly developing navy, not to mention Japan, even if they seek power and usurp the throne in the future

Even Sun Kewang can do nothing to them."

"But King Yong wanted to counterattack the mainland and rebuild the Ming Dynasty after Sun Kewang usurped the Ming Dynasty."

"Hmph..." Huang Zijia snorted coldly, "Rebuilding the Ming Dynasty? He wants to cause a new continental war. We in Qi will definitely not support this. The necessity of Yunzhou's existence is to be able to

It holds North Korea and Japan hostage, and together with our two overseas territories of Ryukyu and Annan, it vaguely forms an island chain that blocks the mainland."

"Will our Qi country have a war with the mainland in the future?"

"Although our country of Qi and the mainland have deep connections in politics, economy, and even humanities, we can even say that they are brothers in foreign lands." Huang Zijia glanced at the new officers and soldiers of Yunzhou who were guarding him, his face expressionless.

He said: "However, the relationship between countries is not connected by this link. The king once said that in this world, there are no eternal friends and no eternal enemies between countries.

There are eternal benefits.”

——

July 25, evening, Juzhou (today’s Ju County, Shandong).

Deng Guilin and Bao Jialu each carried a small baggage and walked on the slightly noisy street. As they walked, they looked at the shops on the street, preparing to find a restaurant to fill their already empty stomachs.

"Otherwise, let's go to this one." Bao Jialu stopped in front of a restaurant and looked at the few customers in the store, but the aroma wafting from inside immediately aroused his appetite.

"Yeah." Deng Guilin looked into the store and nodded in response, but subconsciously turned around and looked around before following Baojia Lu into the store.

"Hey, sir, please come inside!" When a waiter saw two guests coming in, he immediately came forward to greet them enthusiastically, "What do you two want to order?"

"Is there anything here that can fill my stomach?" Baojia Lu chose a table by the window and placed the small bundle behind him on the bench next to him.

"There are all kinds of pasta." The waiter took off the rag from his shoulder and wiped the table neatly. "In addition, the store also has mutton, pork, donkey meat, and various seasonal vegetables. If you are a guest,

If you want to drink some wine, the store also has home-brewed shochu, southern rice wine, and Japanese sake... Oh, and there is also a little mead and wine from Qi in the store."

"Oh, there are quite a lot of ingredients and alcoholic beverages in your little shop." Hearing this, Baojia Lu's throat rolled a few times subconsciously, "First, give us two large bowls of noodles to pacify our bellies. Then, we'll have some more

A plate of donkey meat, two stir-fried side dishes, and wine..."

As he said that, Bao Jialu turned to look at Deng Guilin.

"Bring a pot of rice wine."

"This kind of soft wine is boring to drink." Seeing the waiter walking towards the kitchen quickly, Bao Jialu licked his lips.

"This is in the Qinglu controlled area." Deng Guilin lowered his voice and said, "If you drink soju and get drunk, you will be in trouble."

The two were spies sent to Shandong by the Qi State's Changshan Island Administrative Region. They came to investigate the distribution of troops and the accumulation of grain and grass supplies in the rear of the Qing Dynasty, in order to prepare in advance for the "Summer Hunt" to be launched next month. Shandong has always been as a

Numerous material warehouses were established in various major prefectures and counties as the main logistics supply areas to support the Qinglu Jianghuai defense line.

Juzhou was an important coastal defense town of the Qing Dynasty, with more than 3,000 Qing troops stationed in order to cope with the "summer hunting" or "winter hunting" border raids launched by Qi State and Yunzhou Town every year.

The two devoured the pasta in their respective bowls, and then let out a few loud burps. Then they began to eat the food and drink wine unhurriedly, while listening to what the diners in the store were saying.

Various news to talk about.

"Have you heard? Last month, Marshal Mulima (Obai's younger brother) repelled another large-scale invasion by the Ming Dynasty on the Xuzhou front line, beheading 6,000 people. Hey, it could be said that father and son soldiers went into battle to fight against tigers.

What about brothers? The Shaobao Lord in the court is a famous general in hundreds of battles. As Shaobao’s brother, Marshal Mulima will not give in too much!"

"That's right. Since Commander Mulima took office as the General of the Conquest of the South in May, he has won consecutive battles. In a few months, he has repulsed more than ten attacks by the pseudo-Ming Dynasty, and beheaded a total of 30,000 to 50,000 people. You think, this pseudo-Ming Dynasty

How many troops are there, are they enough to kill Marshal Mulima?"

"The population of the Pseudo-Ming Dynasty is several times larger than that of our Qing Dynasty. Naturally, the army relies on accumulating numbers to fight against our Qing Dynasty. Come to think of it, they must have between five and six million people."
To be continued...