This was originally a small coastal fishing village. The local people made a living by farming and fishing.
A major event happened in the 20th year of Daoguang's reign. Immediately, a group of people landed on Xiangjiang Island opposite Kowloon Town.
Xiangjiang is a small stream on the island. The water is sweet and delicious. Fishermen often use fresh water when they go to sea.
The stream flows into the sea to form a natural harbor, which some people call Hong Kong.
White people have landed on Xiangjiang Island very early, where they replenished supplies and dried goods.
There was originally a small village on the island, which later became a spice market.
In the 20th year of Daoguang's reign, this island was completely occupied by this group of foreigners.
They built trading houses on the island and expanded the port.
They also forced the residents of the island to work for them as young men.
From that day on, the imperial court ignored the island.
Later, when the foreigners needed more manpower, they used various means to trick the people of Huizhou into coming to work for them.
Decades have passed now. The island has developed into a city.
But every brick and tile on the island was built by Chinese people.
Later, the dynasty was changed, but the island was not recovered.
Everyone has lived in the Xin Dynasty for several years and knows how powerful the Xin Dynasty is.
There are many people who go to sea in the coastal areas of eastern Guangdong. In recent years, many people from Kowloon Town have moved to Indochina and Southeast Asia.
Many people got rich, and when they came back to worship their ancestors, they were all very wealthy.
The people in the town didn't understand why the Renaissance Army didn't take back this small island after occupying so much land.
Naturally, the government will not specifically explain this matter to the people.
Many things are difficult to explain clearly.
On August 25, a group of soldiers suddenly arrived in Kowloon Town, and they also brought many cannons.
The people came out to watch the fun.
The common people are not afraid of the soldiers of the Renaissance Army.
After getting along with each other for several years, everyone knows that the Fuxing Army has strict military discipline. They claim to be the people's army, and there has never been any case of soldiers looting places.
The soldiers did not drive them away, indicating that this was not a confidential matter. They set up cannons on the south side of the town facing the seaside of Xiangjiang Island.
The artillery position is placed in Tsim Sha Tsui Village.
This is about to take over the island!
All of a sudden, the townspeople rushed to tell each other.
Xiangjiang Island used to be a village under Jiulong Town. If it were taken back, Jiulong Town would be developed.
Soon the villagers of several seaside villages were evacuated from the seaside.
The situation became more and more tense. Someone came back and said that they saw the armored battleships of the Renaissance Army in the bay.
Lord Luo Chemin came to Xiangjiang Island just last month to take over the position of Acting Governor William Kane.
He is only thirty-five years old this year. He previously worked in the Irish local government. His outstanding performance during the famine broke out there, so he was valued and was sent to work in the colonial government in West Indies.
He was a very ruthless and decisive man. When he was in Ireland, I don't know how many local Irish people died at his hands.
All the Irish who could afford ferry tickets fled to Milicia, while most of the remaining people starved to death in the famine, and some were suppressed during protests.
This is the achievement of Lord Luo Shimin.
This time, he was captured by the Renaissance Army soldiers only one month after arriving in Xiangjiang. Lord Luo Shimin felt deeply ashamed.
"Damn it, are these people going to go to war with the Great Empire?" Lord Luo Shimin was young and vigorous, how could he bear such humiliation.
"Lord Governor, why should we start a war with them? There is only one regiment of soldiers on the island, which were reinforced recently due to the tense relationship with the Renaissance Army. There is one battalion of British troops, and the rest are colonial servants.
"William Kane resigned as acting governor and now became young Luo Shimin's deputy.
At the beginning, he was still a little unhappy.
But now he feels more happy.
In the current situation, if it were him, there would be no good solution.
The military strength of the Renaissance Army is too strong, especially in terms of the army. They can pull out hundreds of thousands of troops in one place at any time.
It doesn't mean how many standing troops they have.
The current apparent number of standing troops in the Renaissance Army is only over 500,000. This is data that has been made public.
But the scary thing is that they have countless militias that can be recruited.
Maybe even Dong Shuheng himself doesn't know how many reserve militiamen the Fuxing Army has now, maybe one million, two million, or even more.
After all, the current population controlled by the Renaissance Army in the mainland is already 60 million. The young and healthy population must be more than 100 million anyway.
William Kin has been working in Hong Kong for seven or eight years, and he has witnessed with his own eyes the influence of the Great Empire in the East Indies.
Not only the influence of the Great Empire, but also the influence of all European countries is weakening.
First, the Dutch were suppressed by the Chinese in the Spice Islands, and then the sultanates under their control were divided and occupied by small Chinese countries. Then, the Spanish colony of Luzon was occupied by the Renaissance Army.
Became the Luzon Protectorate of the Renaissance Army.
The forces supported by the Great Empire were also squeezed out by the Chinese.
Until now, the Great Empire's sphere of influence in Southeast Asia was limited to the Malay Peninsula and Singapore.
The situation in the Malay Peninsula is also very complicated. A large amount of land is also controlled by the Chinese. The policy of the Great Empire of using natives to suppress the Chinese completely failed here.
Even the Governor-General of Singapore can only be wary of the Chinese under his rule.
In recent years, basically all the resources in the East have been invested in India, which was the most important colony of the Great Empire.
The Great Empire has been operating here for hundreds of years.
However, investing so many resources is like entering a quagmire. In the end, there is nothing, and the situation in India is getting worse.
According to information obtained by William Jian in colonial circles, the government's investment in India is said to have exceeded 400 million pounds.
Oh, my God, in the past few years, the Great Empire has been working for an Indian colony.
William Jian has been working in the colony, working his way up from the grassroots level, and has a wide network of contacts here. He has already found a place.
After a while he will be transferred to the Cape Colony to work.
Be sure to stay away from the east, it is full of dangers.
There are also many Chinese living here in Xiangjiang.
What was their original state?
Numb, obedient, hard-working and hard-working. This is the image of the Chinese in William Jian's mind.
But the Chinese in Xiangjiang have changed in the past two years. They started to raise their heads when walking.
Many people secretly left Xiangjiang and went to other places in Southeast Asia.
Those Chinese who have properties in Hong Kong will no longer be bullied.
In the past, when foreigners beat up Chinese people or smashed their shops, no one dared to stand up and speak out.
But now that it doesn't work anymore, they will report it to the Governor's Mansion. If the Governor's Mansion doesn't care about them, they will move away and leave Xiangjiang.
Then the white man who committed the crime will be wanted under the rule of the Renaissance Army and throughout Southeast Asia.
Even the Governor's Palace couldn't protect him.
If the Governor's Palace protects that person, he may soon die in an unknown place due to inexplicable reasons.
William Jian has seen too many such examples in recent years.
So much so that the Governor-General had to treat the Chinese equally.
Does Luo Shimin still think that the Dayang Empire is still the same victor here?
Haha, it's really ridiculous. In fact, the Governor's Palace of Xiangjiang has already started to behave with its tail between its legs.
"What then, William?"
"Governor, I think we must start to evacuate the overseas Chinese while this place is not yet surrounded by the Renaissance Army. Now that the Renaissance Army has cut off the supply of food and vegetables on the island, we will soon be hungry. Those Chinese can evacuate directly.
If we go to the other side, we can only retreat to the Straits Settlements."
"Evacuate? This is the territory of the Great Empire, how can we evacuate on our own initiative?" Luo Shimin was a little excited.
If he withdraws just after taking office, doesn't this make him the laughing stock of others?
And how will he explain it to the country?
"Governor, just hold on here." William Jian could only say helplessly.
"Send people to the Straits Settlements now to ask for help. I hope our Straits Fleet can come over."
"In addition, we need to send people to calm the emotions of the residents in the city, and then send people to monitor the Chinese in the city."
"The defenders in the city must also step up their defensive offensive."
…
The advice given by William Jian is quite pertinent.
At least the Renaissance Army hasn't attacked yet, they can't mess up their position first.
At this time, Dong Shuheng had arrived at Yili City, which was the center of the Western Region Protectorate.
Both the military and political administrations were stationed here.
The civil servants of the Western Regions are now headed by Li Cunwen, who is already fifty this year.
The two brothers of the Li family are now very prosperous in politics.
Li Cunwen was a Jinshi in the 25th year of Daoguang's reign, and was already a general judge when he joined the Fuxing Army.
At that time, the Renaissance Army was still a local regiment.
Although his joining the Renaissance Army had a lot to do with his family, he did do a lot of things for the Renaissance Army.
Under the Qing Dynasty's governance model, local officials had very great power, and there were only a few main officials in a place.
With local officials providing cover, many things are very easy to do.
Therefore, after the Renaissance Army took control of Zhejiang, Li Cunwen quickly became a high-ranking official.
At his age, he has great hope of becoming a deputy prime minister and entering the country's decision-making level.
Li Cunwen's greatest advantage is that he is steady in his work. He seems to have a very deep understanding of the golden mean.
Dong Shuheng met Li Cunwen in Hami.
Then, accompanied by Li Cunwen, we visited the cotton plantation here.
The sunshine time here in the Western Region is long, which is very suitable for the growth of cotton.
The cotton produced here has longer fibers and higher quality than elsewhere.
Whether it is cotton plantations or pastures, they are all intended to change the living habits of local people.
The reason why troubles always happen here is because the people here originally lived together as one ethnic group.
Tribal leaders have too much power and can easily use various excuses such as religion to instigate the people below to follow them into rebellion.
After Zuo Jigao came, he killed a group of instigators and then started a large-scale relocation movement.
First, some Han people were moved from the interior and settled in the southern region, which was originally prone to unrest, and then the original population in the southern region was dispersed and settled in the Han settlements at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains.
Second, build a large number of state-owned farms and pastures to provide them with livelihood, and then strengthen their secular management in this way.
For example, the Dongba Farm in Shanshan County that he inspected has a total of 200 households, of which 52 are Han, 43 are Uyghur, 51 are Kyrgyz, and 33 are
Kazakhs, and others from other ethnic groups.
They cultivated 20,000 acres of wheat, 10,000 acres of cotton, 2,000 acres of date orchards, and hundreds of acres of melon fields. On the basis of self-sufficiency, they were able to create a profit of 30,000 Chinese yuan every year.
, such a farm is completely managed in a secular manner.
All people are farm workers and are treated equally. Their children can also become farm workers when they grow up. They may just be assigned to work on a new farm.
There are also schools and various public facilities on the farm. When the next generation comes, they may completely abandon their traditions. This kind of integration is a refined way of integration.
Originally, Zuo Jigao was just setting up the shelves. After Li Cunwen took over, he really made this matter more detailed.
He presided over the statistics of the ethnic and population distribution in the entire Western Region, and then carried out population allocation based on these data.
The general principle is that in important border areas and some areas of high strategic value, Han people will be the main body, mixed with some other ethnic groups resettled in other places.
Border areas are also divided into stable areas and conflict areas.
For example, the border area with Aiwuhan is a stable area, where border trade can be developed with confidence.
Build some commercial border towns.
The west of the Yibo Sea and the Kazakh buffer zone are conflict zones. In such places, military occupation is the main task, relying on the Renaissance Army to form the inner circle of defense, and then using young and strong men from various ethnic groups to form rangers to take charge of the outer circle.
defense.
The selection of these rangers is also very particular. They must be young men who have families living on farms or ranches in the rear.
These people will form military camps in the buffer zone on the border.
Their main tasks are military settlements and inspections.
The Protectorate also has a measure to maintain local stability, which is to build some places with too harsh living conditions into protected areas and move out the people who originally lived there.
According to past experience, tribes living in harsh environments are too weak to withstand natural disasters.
Once a natural disaster occurs, they will become a safety hazard.
After several years of hard work, hundreds of thousands of herdsmen of all ethnic groups have come down the mountain.
Of course, the reason why this was possible was because the Duhufu had enough land to accommodate them.
In fact, if there is no place to resettle them, they can be arranged in other provinces and included in the unified deployment list of the Immigration Bureau.
In short, ordinary people are still willing to move if they can live a more stable life.
Those who don't want to move are the original leaders.
But under the military power of the Renaissance Army, no one dared to resist.
Those ambitious instigators had already been dealt with by Zuo Jigao.
It has been a year now, and there has been no internal riot in the Western Region.
Dong Shuheng was still satisfied with Li Cunwen's people's livelihood construction in the Western Regions.
There are now more than 100 farms and ranches built, housing half of the population in the Western Region. This will be the foundation for the stability of the Western Region in the future.
Li Cunwen also did a good job in industrial construction.
Last year, five coal mines, an iron mine, an ironworks plant, and an oil refinery were opened. In terms of light industry, five food processing plants, two large spinning plants, and a garment factory were built.
On the south bank of the Yili River, facing the direction of Yili City, an industrial zone has begun to take shape.
He also established coal supply stations in various places, changing the past habit of farmers and herdsmen using cow dung and firewood as fuel.
Local laws were also enacted to protect forests. People in the Western Regions have long begun to coexist with the desert, and they also know the role of trees in resisting desert invasion.