Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 289 Enthusiastic New Chinese
"What a joke! Although I, Shen, come from a merchant family, I also understand the righteousness of the nation. How could I stoop to surrender to the Jiannu for such petty and despicable things?"

Shen Shikui sneered and placed the teacup in his hand heavily on the table with a "bang". The Korean maidservant serving beside him was startled and quickly lowered her head a few more inches, not daring to breathe.

"Father, the Xinhua people are truly despicable. They humiliated us in this way," Shen Zhixiang said bitterly. "In my opinion, after we receive this batch of weapons and armor from them, we will part ways with them and cease all cooperation."

"Don't cooperate? If we don't cooperate with them, where will we get food on Pi Island?" Shen Shikui glared at him and walked around the room irritably, thinking about how to deal with the situation that will come next.

Just when Shen Zhixiang went to Ku Niang Island to find new Chinese people to purchase guns, artillery and armor, North Korea sent envoys to the island again, and once again sternly questioned why the Chinese government troops frequently landed and plundered Korean villages and towns, not only extorting food and wages, but also abducting women, which caused local people to feel resentful and angry.

Shen Shikui replied perfunctorily, saying that the above atrocities were all committed by the Jiannu. They dressed up as Ming troops and plundered the Korean area. They were trying to sow discord between the Ming Dynasty and Korea, and were also trying to throw dirty water on their Dongjiang Town, thereby undermining the cooperation between the two sides.

However, these remarks did not calm the North Koreans' dissatisfaction at all, but made them even more furious.

You are kidding us!
Are they Jiannu or Ming army? How can we Koreans not tell the difference?

Could it be that in order to plunder our Korean villages and towns, those Jiannu not only found the clothes and armor of the Qing Dynasty’s official army, but also grew a lot of hair on their foreheads?

Although the Koreans did not make any harsh remarks when they left, they were obviously extremely angry and hated the Ming army in Pi Island for what they had done.

How could there be such bandit-like Ming Dynasty troops? Not only did they fail to protect the security of our Korean border, they also wantonly extorted local people and raped women within our territory.

It can be predicted that the North Koreans will inevitably stop supplying materials to Pi Island due to their anger, causing Shen Shikui and others to face a more serious survival crisis.

Since the Denglai soldiers rebelled, maritime transportation was greatly affected, and the Dongjiang River became increasingly difficult. People had to go through a really hard time, relying on the limited supplies from the Koreans to barely survive.

Two years ago, when Huang Long led thousands of elite troops to Lushunkou to suppress the rebellion of Chen Shiyou and Mao Chenglu, he sent a letter to King Injo of Joseon, requesting food and fodder aid.

After the Denglai Rebellion was completely put down, the problem of material supply in Dongjiang Town was still not solved. With no food to eat, the town had to continue to "borrow" food and fodder from North Korea to feed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians.

In August, Shen Shikui was ordered to attack the rear of the Jiannu army. In order to strengthen the offensive force, he sent envoys to Korea to "request food, wages, warships, gunners, and bird guns."

Korea did not want to pay any attention at first, but Shen brought up the name of Fu Zonglong, the governor of Ji and Liao, and then held his nose and ordered "the ministers to transport half of the military rations stored in Xuantie and the coastal counties", and also sent 100 bird guns to the Ming army in Pi Island.

However, North Korea was unable to provide for the two items of "war ships and gunners" and was afraid that the Qing army would find out, so it politely declined.

Although North Korea has not been able to fully meet all the needs of the Ming army on Pi Island over the years, without North Korea's assistance, I am afraid that many more incidents would have occurred on Pi Island.

In general, although the supplies provided by the North Koreans were not much, it was one of the most important supply channels for Pi Island.

Of course, Korea was not having a good time either, with limited supplies. A disaster might even lead to famine. Moreover, the Jiannu army would send envoys from time to time to intimidate the Korean monarch and his ministers, strictly ordering them not to provide any more financial support to Dongjiang Town.

Moreover, in the eyes of the Korean monarchs and ministers, the people of Pi Island were not only "useless in restraining the Jiannu", but would only "disturb the vassal states", which was particularly hateful.

Shen Shikui was well aware of the importance of Korea and could not push it to the opposite side of himself. He also thought about strictly restraining the Pidao tribe and not wantonly invading Korea.

However, Pi Island was always short of food and weapons. In order to survive, it could only allow its subordinates to take advantage of the situation in Korea.

Otherwise, if the officers and soldiers had no food, they would have swallowed Shen Shikui.

Apart from North Korea, the people who can provide the greatest material support to Pi Island are the new Chinese.

They did not seem to mind the trouble or the low profits of grain trade. Every year, they would organize merchant ships to bring in large quantities of rice from Siam, Cambodia, Champa and other countries, and then transport shiploads of Liaodong refugees to Beiying Island.

It is said that the purchase price of these rice was only four or five cents of silver per stone. It was transported from thousands of miles away, but when it was sold to them in Pi Island, it was three taels of silver per stone.

Although the New Chinese earned more than seven times the profit in the grain trade, this was definitely a friendly price for Pi Island.

Because even in important cities in Liaodong such as Jinzhou, Guangning, and Shanhaiguan, the price of rice was as high as five cents of silver per dou, which was equivalent to five taels of silver per dan.

Because their Dongjiang Town is far away from the mainland, it is inconvenient to supply materials. The price of rice is more than six or seven taels of silver, and even corn costs three or four taels of silver.

Therefore, the 300,000 to 500,000 taels of silver in military pay paid by the imperial court every year was not enough to support the more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians in Dongjiang Town.

In order to avoid starvation, Dongjiang Town could only raise funds through smuggling trade and find other ways to supply food.

In just less than four years, the Xinhua people quickly became the largest grain merchants in the entire Liaohai area, handling more than 100,000 dan of rice each year. Although this could not fully meet the needs of Dongjiang Town, it effectively maintained their food supply and prevented them from starving to death.

Shen Shikui sighed, stood in front of the window, and looked at the courtyard outside. An autumn wind blew, blowing the fallen leaves into the air, but they eventually fell helplessly to the ground.

"What else did the New Chinese say?"

"Father..." Shen Zhixiang hesitated, unsure whether he should tell Xinhua what he had said. "Go ahead," Shen Shikui looked at him expressionlessly. "Although Xinhua has become increasingly erratic in recent years, he still has some sense of proportion."

"Father, the Xinhua people said..." Shen Zhixiang paused, then lowered his head and said, "They said that as long as you don't surrender to the Qing army, they will ensure your safety and will do their best to persuade Huang Long not to embarrass you. If..."

"Hmm?" Shen Shikui stared at him.

"If you...want to surrender to the Jiannu, you will join forces with Huanglong to attack Pi Island, leaving me to die without a burial place."

"Well, is there anything else?" Shen Shikui's eyelids couldn't help but twitch a few times.

Shen Zhixiang quickly glanced at Shen Shikui's face and saw that he didn't seem to be angry, so he felt a little relieved.

"...They also said that as long as Pi Island was determined to resist the Jiannu, they would spare no effort to support us and would never allow the Jiannu to attack the island."

"How...will they support us?"

"They will sell us food, guns, armor, and other necessary war supplies at extremely low prices."

"What if we don't have money?"

"We can exchange it for minerals and...people."

"Well, there's no shortage of people. But where do we get the minerals?"

"North Korea."

"North Korea?"

"There are iron and copper mines in Tieshan County on the other side of the river."

"Hiss..." Shen Shikui took a breath, "The Xinhua people want our Dongjiang Town to reoccupy Tieshan?"

"The Xinhua people still want us to retake Zhenjiang..." Shen Zhixiang looked at Shen Shikui cautiously.

"Haha..." Shen Shikui was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter. "Back then, when the Marshal (Mao Wenlong) was still alive, he didn't dare lead his troops to attack Zhenjiang again. Now, we in Pidao are few in number, short of food and weapons. How dare we stroke the tiger's mouth?... The Xinhua people really think highly of us!"

"Father..." Shen Zhixiang hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "The Xinhua people say that it's winter now. While the Jiannu are hibernating, we should quickly capture Tieshan and Zhenjiang, and then drive the Koreans to build fortifications. That way, we can gain a foothold. They'll then send several fortification craftsmen and use secret materials to build these two places into fortresses as strong as the Weeping Mother Island."

"Building a city in winter?" Shen Shikui said softly, surprised. "That would cost many lives!"

"New Chinese claimed that if the Qing invaded Korea, more people would die."

"Will the Jiannu attack Korea again?"

"To completely eliminate their worries, the Jiannu will probably seek another opportunity to attack Korea," Shen Zhixiang said. "Furthermore, our Pi Island should also be among the Jiannu's targets."

"Huh..." Shen Shikui let out a long breath and gave a bitter laugh. "Why don't the Xinhua people encourage Huanglong to expand northward and strike directly at the heart of the Jiannu, but instead keep provoking us to take risks?"

"The Xinhua people will also persuade Huang Long to reoccupy Fuzhou, Gaizhou, Haizhou, and Yaozhou, thereby locking down the entire coast of the peninsula and squeezing the strategic space of the Jiannu."

"Oh?" Shen Shikui said with a mocking smile, "A few months ago, the Jiannu army only gathered more than 10,000 soldiers in Liaoyang, and they frightened Huang Long so much that he abandoned all the aforementioned forts and retreated to Lushun Fort, not daring to look north. How come the Xinhua people's support makes him bolder?"

"The New Chinese will send out gunboats to assist in the battle..."

"Ok?"

"It is winter now, and the immigration of the new Chinese has stopped. Therefore, we can free up some gunboats to assist our Dongjiang Town in launching...a winter offensive."

"Send out gunboats? ...launch a winter offensive?" Shen Shikui's eyes widened. "What benefits did the court promise the Xinhua people to make them work so hard?"

“…” Shen Zhixiang shook his head.

Yes, why are the Xinhua people so keen on the Liaodong war? Not only do they supply a large amount of low-priced grain to their Dongjiang Town, but they also continue to sell them various firearms and armor.

Now, they are even more willing to dispatch a number of gunboats to assist Dongjiang Town in launching the so-called winter offensive against the Jiannu and carry out a limited counterattack.

Do the Xinhua people have a grudge against the Jiannu?
Or was it that when they went to the capital to pay homage, the court promised them many benefits?
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(End of this chapter)