Approaching the Chinese New Year, Wang Xinyu handed over everything in Qiongzhou to Fang Yizhi to take care of, and then left Albert's British fleet, Wang Defeng's white mercenaries and Liu Qi's Nanyang Company Army to garrison Hainan, and returned to Xiamen Island with the Zheng Jiajun Navy Second Town and the Right Tiger Guard Iron Guard.

Albert and Wang Defeng don't need to celebrate the New Year, they celebrate Christmas in the West. As for the Han gunners who remained in the British fleet, as well as Liu Qi's Nanyang Company Army, they could only stay on Hainan Island for the New Year.

The New Year is approaching, Qiongzhou Island is lively, everyone buys New Year's goods, selects fat pigs, cattle, chickens and ducks, and prepares to slaughter them before the New Year. After the Ming army lifted the ban on the sea stipulated by the Qing court, the fishermen happily went to the sea to catch all kinds of seafood, except for some of them to keep for the New Year, the fishermen hoped to be able to sell the seafood at a good price and have a good New Year.

Although Hainan Island still lacked officials at this time, the arrest was fast, but Wang Jinzhong's mountain town maintained law and order in the local area, and after arresting and killing a group of traitors, the order in Qiongzhou was controlled.

The criminals who committed the most heinous crimes, such as bandits, murderers, and robbers, were all cut down before the year and were not given a chance to celebrate the New Year by these repeat offenders. A large number of heads fell to the ground, although it was bloody, cruel, and did not give them a chance to celebrate the New Year, which sounded a little inhumane, but in the troubled times, he used heavy rituals to kill a group of people, suppressed some guys who were ready to move, and ensured the security of Qiongzhou Mansion, so that the people could have a good New Year in peace and stability.

As for some petty thieves, ruffians, and scoundrels, they were all arrested and sent to Luzon.

"Want to go home for the New Year? There are no doors! Do you want to go home for the New Year after doing something bad? Go to Luzon for the New Year! Shi Fu, who had already changed into the uniform of the Ming army, severely whipped several splashes who refused to get on the boat.

Every time Shi Fu whipped down, his heart was full of happiness: Fortunately! I have the vision to participate in the royal division! On Chinese New Year's Eve, you can also go home to see your parents. If you don't come to your senses, it is estimated that you will be sent to Luzon Island thousands of miles away to serve hard labor like these scoundrels, so that your parents and younger siblings will be miserable, and who can take care of them during the New Year!

Just now, Wang Jinzhong personally paid the officers and soldiers in the mountain town, and Shi Fu received the salary of the officers and soldiers of the team for three months and nine taels of silver. Although he has only joined the Ming army for more than a month, and he was still a prisoner cannon fodder soldier for more than 20 days in the first 20 days, because of the Chinese New Year, in addition to a month's military salary, he also paid the military salary for January in advance, plus a double salary for the New Year.

Nine taels of silver! This was unthinkable for Shi Fu before! That's an astronomical amount! One or two pieces of silver is enough for a poor family to live for a year! In the past, he was a Tusi soldier in the Qing army, and the local soldiers did not belong to the establishment of the Green Camp Qing Army, but belonged to the local regimental training army. The salary of the local soldiers is completely up to the Tusi, who says that it is one or two silver a month, but the stingy Tusi finds all kinds of excuses to owe the silver.

With so much silver, Shi Fu can let the family have a good year. And the family also got a share of the land, and the parents, younger brothers and sisters everyone had a share. Regardless of gender, according to the capitation, a person is divided into ten acres of paddy fields and twenty acres of mountainous land.

Although rice and wheat cannot be grown in mountainous areas, sweet potatoes, tea can be grown, and fruit trees can be grown in mountainous areas. These are all incomes. In addition to planting sweet potatoes, tea leaves and fruit trees in the mountains, Wang Xinyu also gave the locals seeds of a plant called chili peppers and asked them to try to grow a batch of chili peppers. It is said that this kind of thing can be used for stir-frying, and the taste is better than that of the dish stir-fried with dogwood, I don't know how many times; In addition to stir-frying, chili peppers can also be made into chili powder, which can be used as a weapon.

Shi Fu heard from those comrades-in-arms on the beach that their families were also given land. People on the seaside are given 10 acres of paddy fields and 5 acres of mountainous land, and an average of 10 people are given a fishing boat. There were not so many fishing boats, so the Ming army converted some of the captured Qing army boats into fishing boats, and at the same time picked up the sunken Qing ships in the sea, and the broken boat boards were also fished up and used to build fishing boats.

The wrecks that were picked up can be repaired, and the broken ship boards can be fished up and directly shipwed. Because these are originally dried wood, they can be built directly. And the wood that has just been cut down from the mountains cannot be shipped.

"It's better for the Ming army, not only does not owe money, but also gives money to the brothers for the New Year! Give back to the brothers' families the fields, the oxen, and the fishing boats! Shi Fu turned his head and said happily to the brothers.

The soldiers of the original soil cheered one after another: "The Ming army is victorious!" ”

"Wan Sheng! Wansheng! "Everyone in the Ming army who was adapted from the local soldiers felt that their blood was full of blood and emotion.

Compared with the comfortable and emotional Ming army, the mood of the prisoners who were about to be escorted to Luzon to serve their sentences can be imagined. They looked at the celebratory Ming army, and could only board the ship in despair, preparing to serve hard labor in a foreign land during the Chinese New Year.

The prisoners were loaded onto a Dutch-sized Galen ship, and all of them were taken to the bottom cabin.

The Galen ship flying the flag of the Daming Nanyang Company had just left, and two more Haicang ships flying the flag of the Ming Zheng Jiajun came to the Haikou wharf in Qiongzhou and docked.

The Haicang boat docked at the pier, the gangplank was lowered, and groups of dejected prisoners were escorted down from the ship by the Ming army. I saw that these captives were all wearing tattered Qing army uniforms, and each of them had shaved their heads. It can be seen from their faces that these Qing soldiers are not Han Chinese, they are all Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banner soldiers.

"Didn't we just send off a group of captives and prisoners? Why are there captives sent here? Shi Fu asked their Qianzong Mountain baby suspiciously.

Shan Wazi replied with a smile: "These are Tartars, real Tartars who were caught in Xiamen and were sent to us to open iron mines." The Tartars we caught here are familiar with this place, and of course cannot stay here. The Tartars caught in Xiamen were sent. Anyway, with our people watching, these tartars can't run away. ”

Under the blue sea and blue sky, a mixed fleet of Spanish galleons, two British warships, a Dutch armed Galen, two Oriental Daifuku ships, five sea ships and eight centipede clippers split the white waves and sailed eastward.

The flotilla was filled with festive festivity, with bright red lanterns hanging on the ships and red couplets pasted on the cabin doors.

Wang Xinyu took a Spanish galleon with the largest type of ship and the best living facilities on board.

"Time flies! Tomorrow will be the New Year! Gong Xiaoda, who was standing behind Wang Xinyu, sighed.

Li Rui said: "It seems that our little year can only be spent on the ship. ”

At that time, from Hainan Island to Xiamen Island, the fast boat could arrive in three days and three nights, but there were many ordinary ships in the fleet, sailing in crosswinds, with an average speed of about eight knots, which took five days and four nights.

To spend the New Year on the ship, Wang Xinyu brought enough New Year's goods with them when they boarded the ship.

At that time, there was no refrigerator, and fresh vegetables could not be stored for a few days, but the Ming army brought soybeans and mung beans on the ship, which could be used to make tofu, and bean sprouts and bean seedlings could be planted on the ship, and fresh vegetables could be eaten. There are also vegetables such as radish, taro, and water chestnuts that are not easily damaged. As for the preservation of meat, there is also a set of methods: in addition to live chickens, ducks and pigs brought on board, there are cured meats, bacon, sausages and the like. There is also a way to preserve the meat: fill the bucket with concentrated salt water and soak the fresh meat in it, which can be left for a long time without damage. Cattle that were too large to slaughter and were not suitable for raising on a boat, so the beef was soaked in concentrated salt water.

"Tomorrow is the New Year, although we are at sea, but we also want to let the brothers have a good New Year!" Wang Xinyu said.

The officers and soldiers of the Ming Army Naval Division on the warship and the sailors on the merchant ship of the Nanyang Company were busy preparing some ingredients for the dishes. The stove on the ship was burning brightly, and the smell wafted from the pot.

On Xiamen Island, all the markets are lively, and the officers and soldiers of the Zheng Jiajun and the local artisans and residents are all purchasing New Year's goods. With the profits of Zheng Chenggong's sea trade, the officers and soldiers of the Zheng family army and the craftsmen lived a good life, and the king of Yanping gave the brothers a good year ago, so that everyone could have a good year.

And those refugees from other places, Minzhuang who came from the coast, although they did not have the money to buy New Year's goods for a good New Year, the refugee camp still gave them a small amount of rice, flour, and a little fish and shrimp, so that they could have a better New Year.

The sound of firecrackers, Xiamen Island is filled with the joy of the New Year.

Children gather together to set off firecrackers and play to their heart's content. For these children, the Chinese New Year is the happiest thing, because after the New Year, they can eat good things that are usually difficult to eat.

A small village fifteen miles from the coastline by the sea in Guangdong.

There is no trace of New Year's celebration here, the eyes of the emaciated villagers are glazed, and the children's eyes have no childhood joy, only endless hunger. The old man was lying on the bed, and in order to conserve his strength, they were motionless and looked like dead people, so that they might be able to stay up a little longer and save a little food.

One villager said: "The end of the year is coming again, we are all dying of hunger, and they are still urging usury!" What do we give them? This New Year, sad! ”

This small village was originally an ordinary small fishing village on the coast of Guangdong, although it was not rich, but the fishermen worked hard, the men went to the sea to fish, and the women caught the tide on the seaside, and they could catch some crabs, harvest oysters and so on. The things they fished out of the sea were sold in the bazaar and exchanged for food, and at least their lives were quite passable.

But that all changed after the Qing court issued a ban on the sea. Small fishing villages were forcibly relocated to the interior fifteen or even thirty miles from the sea. Not only that, but also the sails are not allowed to enter the sea, and the fishermen are not only not allowed to go out to sea to fish, but even going to the beach to collect shells and digging oysters are forbidden by Wu Liuqi! What is even more infuriating is that the ban on the sea was issued in a hurry, and there were only three days for the fishermen to relocate.

Many people were unprepared, and when they heard this thunderbolt on a sunny day, these fishermen who had relied on the sea for a long time were stunned. When the wolf-like green battalion soldiers came to drive people away, many people were reluctant to relocate, so the Qing soldiers ruthlessly waved their butcher knives, cut off the heads of a group of villagers, and forced everyone to move away.

After moving inland, the fishermen lost their fishing boats and had no land to rent. There are many people and little land, and the fishermen who have little farming experience are not as good as the local farmers, and the income is not enough to pay the rent. In order to live, in order to pay rent, they had to borrow usury.

The usury of the rolling interest rate has forced many villagers to commit suicide with their families!

Seeing that they were about to survive, many people took the risk of sneaking to the beach to fish, only to bump into the wolf-like Qing soldiers. Some people were directly beheaded on the spot by the Qing soldiers, and some people were sent to the Yamen and sentenced to be beheaded for the crime of opening the sea.

On the cordon by the sea, on the city gate in the county seat, there are human heads hanging high, as if to accuse the Qing court of evil.

The bloody and brutal made the villagers dare not move the idea of going to sea again, so they had to sit at home and wait to starve to death.

In this small village, not only is there no celebration of the New Year, but there are bones of starving to death, and there are people waiting to die at home. The people who survived by stealing only numbness and despair in their eyes. They don't know how long they can live, maybe they will starve to death tomorrow, maybe the whole family can't stand it anymore, and the whole family will commit suicide.

"Mother, I'm hungry." A skinny little boy swayed by the corner of his mother's coat.

But the mother can only cry, the family can't open the pot anymore, where is there something for the child to eat? The daughters had all been sold, and the copper plates they had bought were only enough to pay the rent and repay the loan sharks. They are all fishermen, not as good as the local farmers. Local farmers also know how to grow a little sweet potato, which can keep their family alive. However, the fishermen did not know how to farm, and the rent they collected was silver for nothing, and the sweet potatoes were worthless, and they could not be sold for a few dollars if they were planted. Even if they plant sweet potatoes, the fishermen who don't know how to farm don't know how to take care of them, they don't have a harvest, and they can't even pay the rent, how can they survive?

The fishermen were about to be forced to death, and the Qing soldiers also splashed dirty water on the heads of King Yanping and Zhang Huangyan: "If it weren't for those pirates, our British lord would have forbidden the sea?" You don't want to blame us, if you want to blame, blame those pirates who don't obey the king! ”

"Mother......" The child was already crying with hunger.

Just then, the man of the family returned, carrying a basket of wild vegetables and grass roots.

"Maomao, well-behaved, obedient! Your dad is back and bringing you something delicious! The woman comforts her child.

Although the man did not shed tears, the tears went to his heart: how can you live such a life? Still don't let people live?

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