Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 349 A Liao Soldier's Rebirth
June 15, 1637, Kaiping Fort (now Hakodate City), Hokyo Island.

Shen Asi dragged his limp leg and slowly climbed up the watchtower, only to see his brother on guard leaning against the wooden wall, his head tilted to one side, fast asleep, with a trace of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Shen Asi frowned. If he were in Liaodong, he would probably be dead by now if he were so careless.

"Xiao Zhu, time to switch shifts!" Shen Asi kicked his companion.

"Huh?... " Liu Baozhu jolted awake, immediately sitting up from the wooden plank. He breathed a sigh of relief upon recognizing Shen Asi. "Fourth Brother..."

After a moment, he looked at Shen Asi with some unease: "Fourth Brother, you...you mustn't tell Sun Tou. Just now, I only dozed off, I didn't sleep soundly at all..."

"Alright, alright, hurry up and go down." Shen Asi waved his hand impatiently.

"Oh..." Liu Baozhu handed him the monocular telescope and musket, then walked towards the wooden ladder.

"Fourth Brother, I..." He climbed back up after going down half of the wooden ladder.

"Understood, I won't tell Liu Tou." Shen Asi held up his monocular binoculars, looking around. "However, don't do that again when you're on guard duty. The lives of over a hundred brothers in the entire village are no joke!"

"I understand, Fourth Brother." Liu Baozhu felt relieved. "Next time I'm on guard duty, I promise I won't sleep!"

Shen Asi waved his hand, turned his head to the side, and continued to observe.

Kaiping Fort is not large, only about 200 meters long and wide, with more than 20 log houses crammed together. The central brick and stone buildings are the armory, granary, council hall, public canteen and bathhouse, with roofs covered with blue tiles transported from the sea (now Kushiro City, Hokkaido), which gleam in the sunlight.

The protective wall was constructed by deeply burying the trunks of larch trees, each as thick as a person's embrace, with a pointed top and a two-foot-deep trench dug along the outer edge—a far simpler structure than the military fortresses of Liaodong, but sufficient to deal with the natives and Japanese pirates.

The Beiying Island Colonization Team reinforced the area twice, bringing the total number of personnel stationed at the stronghold to over 120, making it one of the more formidable armed forces within a radius of several dozen miles.

To strengthen the security of this stronghold closest to the Japanese, the Beiying Island Colonization Team equipped the garrison with three cannons, along with more than a hundred muskets and dozens of breastplates, making them armed to the teeth.

The decision by the new Chinese to establish a settlement here can be seen as a bold test of the Matsumae Domain and the Tokugawa Shogunate.

If the other party does not react at all, or if there is little opposition, then the Hokyo Island Colonization Team will continue to set up more colonization sites, encompassing the entire Hakodate Bay, and naturally expanding its influence to the Tsugaru Strait.

However, if the Matsumae Domain reacts strongly, disregarding the close business relationship between the two sides, and reports the matter to the Tokugawa Shogunate, forcing the new Chinese to withdraw from the region.

In that case, the Hokyo Island colonization team would make limited concessions, announcing that the outpost would only serve as a trade liaison point and promising not to arm it, opening it to the Matsumae Domain and all the Ainu people in the surrounding area, exempting it from any transaction taxes.

Yes, we've set up a trading point here. Everyone can come here to buy and sell. There's no need to be too nervous or hurt feelings.

Whether it was the Japanese being slow-witted or the fortress being hidden deep in the bay and difficult to find, it has stood peacefully unscathed for the past year.

"I hope nothing bad happens today..." Shen Asi put away his monocular telescope, then grabbed the musket next to him, carefully inspected the barrel, flint and trigger, and after confirming that there were no malfunctions, he hugged it and slowly sat down.

Shen Asi's ancestral home is Yuyao, Zhejiang. His grandfather was exiled to Liaodong for some reason and never returned to his hometown.

In the second year of the Tianqi reign, the Tartars captured Liaoyang. He joined the fleeing Liaoyang people on a grain ship from Dengzhou and drifted at sea for three days and three nights before finally ending up on Pi Island.

At that time, Dongjiang had just been established as a town, and Commander Mao led about a hundred men to establish a foothold right under the noses of the Tartars.

The island was short of food and weapons, but Commander Mao always patted his chest and said, "The imperial court's pay is coming soon! We are guarding Pi Island, like a knife stuck in the hearts of the Tartars!"

The commander-in-chief was adept at using merchants, and Pi Island gradually became a "black market" at sea.

Rice from Korea, iron from the Ming Dynasty, and silver from Japan all circulated in Master Shen Shikui's fleet.

It was then that he learned to fire a gun from the veterans and became one of Marshal Mao's soldiers.

At night, I often heard the veterans boasting: "...That year, we launched a surprise attack on Zhenjiang, and the commander-in-chief led us to behead the Tartar prince! The Tartars were so angry they wanted to bite him, but they didn't dare to cross the sea to attack!"

However, a few years later, Governor Yuan suddenly summoned the commander-in-chief, and the area outside the tent was filled with the armored soldiers of the Guan Ning Army.

No sooner had Commander Mao arrived than Governor Yuan sternly enumerated twelve of his crimes. Before he could even defend himself, the knife had already fallen.

As blood splattered on the banner, Liu Xingzuo's personal guards surrounded Shen Asi and his men, holding knives to their necks.

Fortunately, Commander Yuan said, "The court is supporting you all. From now on, you will be divided into four divisions and obey orders!"

This saved his life, allowing him to escape death.

With Marshal Mao dead, the people on the island were immediately filled with unease.

General Chen Jisheng took over the Eastern Army and temporarily took charge of Dongjiang Town, but he spent his days hiding in his tent writing memorials, asking the court to exonerate the commander-in-chief, and also said that the Liu brothers wanted to surrender to the Jurchens again.

The Liu brothers, arrogant and haughty, carried the banner of "the imperial court's direct imperial guards" and went to great lengths to embezzle the rations and pay of the officers and soldiers of various units in Dongjiang.

The veterans muttered to themselves, "That Liu fellow was a lackey of the Tartars in his younger days, but now he's become a loyal subject of the Ming Dynasty!"

Not long after, Liu Xingzuo died under the Tartars' swords in Yongping.

When the news reached Pi Island, Liu Xingzhi wept bitterly before the coffin.

General Chen Jisheng led a group to pay their respects, but as soon as they entered the mourning hall, ambushes sprang up from all sides.

Shen Asi was so frightened that he shrank back outside the door and did not dare to go forward. Then he heard General Chen roar: "You who falsely convey Grand Secretary Sun's (i.e., Sun Chengzong) military orders will surely be punished by heaven!"

After the sound of swords and axes, Liu Xingzhi emerged from the tent carrying a severed head, grinning maliciously, "From now on, I'm in charge of Pi Island!" However, the imperial court's pay was still in arrears, the island was littered with corpses of the starving, and deserters were constantly fleeing.

Liu Xingzhi secretly contacted the Tartars, but lied and said it was to borrow grain from Korea.

That day, Master Shen Shikui secretly approached Shen Asi and other trusted confidants of the Dongjiang faction, saying that he would take them to Xitan that night.

That night, Shen Asi, armed with a musket, led hundreds of veteran soldiers from Dongjiang in a surprise attack on the Liu residence. Master Shen plunged a knife into Liu Xingzhi's heart and shouted, "The Marshal's revenge is only half complete today!"

However, not long afterward, the imperial court sent General Huanglong to take over Pi Island.

Upon his arrival, the official immediately ordered an investigation into smuggling. In order to absolve himself of any involvement, Master Shen resold his daughter, who had been offered several times as a bribe, to Huang Long, thus barely managing to retain most of his smuggling profits.

Afterwards, Master Shen conspired with Geng Zhongyu and other Dongjiang Army generals for a long time, and then a mutiny broke out, imprisoning Huang Long.

Master Shen watched coldly from the sidelines until Shang Kexi suddenly led his troops to Pi Island. Only then did he exclaim in alarm, "Quickly, protect the General's safety!"

After this incident, Huanglong could no longer stay on Pi Island.

Not long after, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming in Shandong rebelled, and many Dongjiang Army generals followed suit.

Huang Long then used the pretext of suppressing the rebellion to lead his troops away from Pi Island, ultimately allowing Master Shen to completely take control of the area.

Since then, life on Pi Island has gradually improved.

Of course, this was not only due to the more prosperous smuggling trade, but also because the new Chinese continuously transported grain from the south, so that the soldiers and civilians on the island no longer went hungry for two meals a day or five meals a day.

Another crucial point is that the number of Liao people on the island is decreasing.

They were all brought to the New Continent by the new Chinese.

It is said that you can get enough to eat and land there.

There, there is no endless war or turmoil.

There were no messy taxes or various forms of exploitation there.

However, Shen Asi did not believe it.

In this world, where are there no officials, no lords, and no exploitation and oppression?

The imperial paradise, or the secluded utopia, only exists in dreams.

Until one day, he came to Beiying Island and finally believed that the territory of the new Chinese was really like that.

In August of the seventh year of the Chongzhen reign (1634), when the Jurchens invaded Xuanfu and Datong, Shen Asi followed several routes of the Dongjiang Army to raid the Jurchens' rear. During the battle, he was shot in the calf by a Jurchen archer. Due to lack of medical treatment, he was left disabled and limped on one leg.

Out of consideration and affection for him, Mr. Shen persuaded him to join the Xinhua immigrant ship to go to the New Continent to "enjoy a better life".

Originally, Shen Asi thought that because he was crippled, he was abandoned by Dongjiang Town and thrown to the Xinhua people to be their slaves. At that time, he was heartbroken.

When he arrived at Beiying Island with his family, the Xinhua official in charge of immigration asked him what skills and specialties he had.

He thought for a long time, and finally mumbled that all he knew how to do was fire a gun and kill people.

Unexpectedly, the Xinhua people did not seem to mind his limp. Instead, they were very interested in his more than ten years of battlefield experience and kept him on Beiying Island as a member of the Self-Defense Forces militia.

After receiving training in modern firearms, he was first stationed at Haining Fort (present-day Tomakomai City, Hokkaido).

In April of this year, he was transferred to this outpost, which had been established for less than a year, to defend against potential external threats.

To be honest, although there were Japanese and Japanese people on Beiying Island, in Shen Asi's view, they were nothing more than "clay chickens and clay dogs," with a fighting strength of less than 20% of that of the Jurchens, and they did not pose any threat to them at all.

Moreover, the colonization team on the northern islands equipped them with so many firearms and cannons that they completely overwhelmed the Japanese and Japanese in terms of military strength.

They are the ones who are truly worried about being threatened from the outside!

According to Xinhua's official, if he serves as a gunman for another two years, he will be allocated forty acres of good land and can live a peaceful and stable life with his family.

As for the official taxes levied by the government, there was only land tax, and only 20% of that was collected. There was no poll tax, no local miscellaneous taxes, and no additional levies.

In other words, the situation in the Ming Dynasty where "old taxes were not yet paid, new taxes were already being demanded, the budget was difficult to manage, and additional taxes were urgently needed" would never have happened.

Good heavens! Isn't this the benevolent governance that the people have been hoping for?
Light taxes and levies!

Officials do not knock on the door, and doors are not locked at night!
"Hehe..." Thinking of this, Shen Asi couldn't help but grin and laugh out loud.

"Phew!" He let out a long breath, stood up with the help of the wooden pillar, grabbed the monocular telescope, and looked around.

"Hmm?..." As they turned towards the sea, several faint sails appeared in their line of sight, heading towards Kaiping Fort where they were.

"Dudu..."

Shen Asi immediately bent down, grabbed a horn hanging on the wall pillar, puffed out his cheeks, and blew it loudly.
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(End of this chapter)