Chapter 325 Wan Da Immigration

Chapter 325 Wan Da Immigration

Chapter 325: Millions of Immigrants

In the sixth month of the lunar calendar, cicadas are chirping in Hailing and the weather is hot.

More than thirty grain ships set sail one after another and set off from the north gate, carrying a battalion of guards, escorting Shao Quanzhong to leave Hailing and take up his post in the hotter Guangdong.

The boat raised its sails and a cool breeze carrying moisture blew over the river, making the atmosphere finally a little more comfortable.

Steam dredgers were constantly working on dredging the canal. Next to it, a new river channel parallel to the canal was being constructed in the open air, with steam dredgers constantly digging up soil, which was then transported away by steam tractors.

However, not far out of the city, the construction equipment disappeared, and the Grand Canal and Huai-Yang Canal widening and deepening project planned by Shao Quanzhong was halted.

This was what Shao Yuan did. After he took office as the governor of Jiangning, he carefully re-examined and immediately stopped the project that was carried out according to customary thinking. He re-planned a new river channel that turned south after leaving Hailing and went directly south through Gaogang to enter the Yangtze River.

Shao Yigu was used to careful calculations. He found that the canal widening project was quite huge and would take several years even with the support of steam equipment. It would be better to dig a new canal.

The new plan is only 24 kilometers long, which can save half the time and investment. The only dissatisfaction is Yangzhou, which can no longer borrow light. The new plan also has another advantage: it will not affect the current canal shipping.

Shao Quanzhong readily accepted Shao Yuan's proposal and approved it. This newly dug canal was straightened from Hailing to the south to the Yangtze River and was named "Taizhou Yinjiang River" by Shao Quanzhong.

Shao Yuan has now gained a reputation for "construction expertise" and is currently on secondment to Sanmen Island in Huizhou Prefecture, Guangdong, where he is building a new anchorage for the Nanyang Navy.

A day and a half later, the fleet arrived in Zhenjiang. This was originally a large modern shipyard that built ships in cooperation with the British, but after building the transport ships and auxiliary ships in the contract, the British experts withdrew.

The current shipyard's large equipment has been dismantled and moved to Zhanjiang, and it has become a small shipyard that can only manufacture small ironclad ships and unarmored steam-sail transport ships and auxiliary ships.

"Small" is relative to the Zhanjiang Shipyard. Compared with the Fujian Shipyard, which can only build small wooden-hulled steam warships of a few hundred tons, this one is still quite large.

The Zhanjiang Shipyard was positioned to build large ironclad ships, and this place became a place to build auxiliary ships.

However, the officials and technicians who stayed behind are ambitious and are seeking financing from wealthy businessmen in Hailing City.

They planned to use the shipyards left behind by the military industry, and re-order large equipment from the American and Prussian machine tool manufacturers that had just relocated to Hailing, in order to transform into manufacturing large steam cruise ships and steam cargo ships, and to produce profitable civilian ships.

This was not initiated by the Wen family, but was the idea of ​​other Hailing merchants.

The ability of the Chinese people is demonstrated at this time. As long as you provide sufficient policies, the wisdom and action of the people will be sufficient.

Driven by interests, China also began to generate capital for industrial investment. On the road to industrialization, the Wen family was no longer fighting alone.

Shao Quanzhong changed to the newly maintained Zhendong here. On the flagship, he met Le Xiucai, whom he had not seen for more than a year.

Le Xiucai was in Xi'an, but he used telegraphs as tentacles to control the Huai Army's intelligence system.

The Huai Army's other intelligence system was in the Forbidden City. It was the Detective Department controlled by Hai Qing. It was much smaller than the Intelligence Department, but wherever the Intelligence Department went, the Detective Department would follow.

Le Xiucai is now the governor of Guangdong, but he is not doing his job properly and has not taken up the post.

The shogunate officials were heading to Guangzhou under the leadership of his wife Qingfeng, but he came here alone to meet up with Shao Quanzhong.

"Reporting to the Marshal, according to your instructions, our recent intelligence focus is on the French."

"The Intelligence Department's action team has infiltrated Saigon. We have basically obtained intelligence on the French Cochinchina territory."

"There are more than 5,000 French troops in Saigon, including 2,137 Frenchmen and more than 3,000 black troops from the African colonies."

"There are about 4,000 local puppet troops, and we can recruit more when necessary."

"The French fleet stationed in Saigon has six warships. The flagship is the 'Detective' class wooden steam-sailed cruiser 'Woerda', which was commissioned this year. It has a displacement of 1323 tons and is equipped with six 6mm guns. The rest are small warships of less than 139 tons."

The data is pitiful. This - the colonial troops, their strength is not worth mentioning. The Huai Army and the Nanyang Navy are the elite of the Qing Dynasty, and cannot be compared with them.

The Huai Army was targeting the main French army and the Atlantic Fleet, which was quite impressive...

"Also, I have other information about France."

"On the fifth day of May, residents of Zunyi Prefecture, Guizhou, dissatisfied with the oppression of foreign religions, demolished French churches, schools, clinics, etc., and killed priest Zhao Siduo. Guizhou Governor Zeng Biguang protected his people and expelled the French."

"The French ambassador, Luo Shuya, wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting the withdrawal and trial of Zeng Biguang, but the Grand Council has not responded yet."

Shao Quanzhong waved his hand and said, "Let's ignore this matter. The bigger the fuss, the better."

"French Catholic priest Han Shizhen, British Inland Mission priests Mi Daosheng and Wei Yangsheng forcibly bought houses from residents in Anqing at low prices and converted them into churches, causing dissatisfaction among the people."

"Right now, Anqing is holding the government examination. Civil and military candidates from all over Anqing have gathered here. They are very emotional and have posted notices everywhere. This has just happened and Shao Hengzhong in Fengyang doesn't know about it yet. Anhui is our territory and Shao Hengzhong is governing it. How should we deal with it?" Shao Quanzhong scratched his head. "The bigger the matter, the better. However, we should ask Shao Hengzhong to clean up the mess for the British and pay the price they imposed. Don't make it difficult for me. I don't care about the French. Let them make trouble."

"Our people just need to sneak in and take control, but don't let the British get hurt."

"The French have now infiltrated Japan and are colluding with the Meiji government. Omura Masujiro, the Japanese military minister from Choshu, gathered soldiers stationed in Kyoto from Choshu, Geishu, Chikuzen, and Hizen, and helped Meiji establish a new Japanese army, the Imperial Guard, modeled after the French army."

"After the new army was built, a military parade was held for the Meiji who had just undergone the coming of age ceremony."

"The uniforms of the new Japanese army are very similar to ours, and they are equipped with new breech-loading rifles and breech-loading cannons. With the assistance of the French, Omura Masujiro is reforming the military system, building arsenals, and establishing a military academy."

"This was a formidable opponent, but Tokugawa Yoshinobu was satisfied with his success in the Kyoto expedition and returned to Edo. He did not take the new Japanese army seriously because of its small number. He considered it a 'child's toy' of the Meiji era."

"Omura's approach is similar to yours, Marshal, except that he has turned his reliance on France. France must have sensed our ill will and is supporting Japan to fight against us. Should we send someone to sabotage it?"

Shao Quanzhong laughed loudly, "The French are helping us. Once they support us, the anti-shogunate faction will be ready to move again, which is a good thing. Let the anti-shogunate faction become stronger and fight with the shogunate on equal terms. Only when they beat the brains out of the people can we profit. Don't worry about it for now, just keep paying attention."

“Dirty—dirty—”

The whistle sounded and the Zhendong left Zhenjiang and headed east.

....
"Looking up from the Butterfly Spring, I see the peaks of the Cangshan Mountains are thousands of feet high and covered with snow."

At the foot of Cangshan Mountain and beside Erhai Lake, the Three Pagodas stand tall, the Erhai Lake is blue and the breeze is cool. In this hot summer, Dali is really a good place to relax.

Today, this beautiful "literary state" has lost all its poetic charm. There are no Bai women dressing up by the Erhai Lake. Instead, groups of bandits with white silk scarves wrapped around their heads are returning in defeat from the east, with panic-stricken faces and low morale.

That’s right, there are still bandits here, and they are large-scale bandits, from the same faction as Ma Hualong in Jijinbao.

Because they followed Ma Hualong as their leader, the bandits who started the rebellion here did not claim to be a king. Instead, the bandit leader Du Wenxiu was elected as the "Grand Marshal of the Army" with hundreds of thousands of troops under his command. With Dali as their center, they occupied half of Yunnan's territory.

A few months ago, Du Wenxiu even sent troops to besiege Kunming with great momentum.

But now even Jijinbao has disappeared, and the apparent large number of bandits here is just a flash in the pan.

Du Wenxiu knew best that the situation in western Yunnan, which had lasted for fourteen years, was about to end.

Without the internal worries of the Taiping Army, the Nian Army, and Ma Hualong's rebellion, the Qing government had freed up its hands to resolve the chaos in this remote area that it had previously ignored.

He didn't even need the famous Huai Army, nor did he need bigwigs like Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Zhang Zhidong to take action. He just mobilized the remnants of the Hunan Army and local troops in Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangdong provinces, and the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou Liu Yuezhao defeated the 200,000-man Eastern Expedition he had launched.

The Eastern Expedition to Kunming failed, and the Qing army, led by Yunnan Governor Cen Yuying, counterattacked Dali. The poorly equipped bandits had nowhere to escape, were isolated and helpless, and were facing a desperate situation.

"Reporting to the Grand Marshal, someone is visiting, claiming to be your old friend."

Shaanxi, Gansu and Yili provinces have all been pacified by the Qing government. What old friends do I still have?

The man who came also had a white cloth wrapped around his head, dressed like a bandit. He laughed when he saw me, "Brother Yun Huan, your brows are furrowed. Why are you so sad?"

"Ma Haiyan? How dare you, a traitor, come to see me?"

"I'm here to rescue your two hundred thousand comrades."

Du Wenxiu flicked his sleeves and said, "No matter how desperate my situation is, I will never surrender to the Qing demons. Considering our friendship over the years, I will not kill you. Please go back."

"If you are allowed to stop wearing queues, and your 200,000 soldiers are still under your command, and your millions of people are still under your jurisdiction, you can be the king of the land, and you only need to be a vassal of the Qing court in name, would you be willing to do it?"

"Qing Yao is in a great advantage now, would he propose such a condition? Are you crazy?"

"It was not proposed by the court, but by Prince Rui. Marshal Yu thought that you did not massacre Han people, had a bottom line, ruled western Yunnan in an orderly manner, and considered yourself a Chinese, which was very different from Ma Hualong. He was willing to give you a way out."

"Can the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi also extend his jurisdiction to Dali?"

"Marshal Yu is an imperial envoy, and has the power to make decisions on the spot. I want you to stay in the southwest and protect China. Are you willing?"

"I want to be crowned king in Dali. Marshal Yu is willing. Can the court agree?"

"You can't stay in Dali. The southwest that Yu Shuai mentioned is not Yunnan, which is much richer than Yunnan. Yu Shuai promised you 90,000 square kilometers of land as rich as Jiangnan, which is as large as Zhejiang Province."

"Is there such a place in China?"

(End of this chapter)