Those foreign merchant ships cannot receive raw silk and silk, and no one buys the raw silk and silk produced by local people.
You must know that there are not many grain fields in these places, and most of the grain relies on external transportation. The people produce raw silk, silk, sell it for money, and buy grain.
As this industrial chain was broken, the people became miserable. Many people died of starvation while holding inedible raw silk and silk.
Hence, the wave of refugees that was rare in the past also appeared here.
But here comes the problem. In order to prevent the refugees from turning into bandits, the local Qing army guarded checkpoints in various places and resolutely did not allow the refugees to pass!
This move is a bit harsh.
The reason why those refugees want to leave their hometown is not because they have no food. Now if the intersection is blocked, won’t they starve to death?
But the Qing troops would not care whether these refugees were starving to death. Any refugees who dared to break through would be given a white knife to enter and a red knife to exit.
Well, if a person dies, he will not be hungry.
The spies of the Zheng Jiajun contacted the anti-Qing rebels lurking in various places and incited them to launch attacks on the Qing troops in various places.
Obviously, no one in this world is a fool.
In response to the spies' fanning, the leaders of the anti-Qing rebels just laughed.
Although they couldn't stand the Qing troops doing evil in their hometown, so they raised the flag of rebellion, but this did not mean that they would directly confront the Qing troops!
Who is willing to do something that does no good?
When the information came back to Xinghai Kingdom, Zheng Jiajun said that he could support the rebels with some ships, but there were no more ships, and the landlords had no surplus food.
What's more, I still owe a lot of loans to Xinghai Country.
But these are all minor problems for Xinghai Kingdom.
The benefit, right?
Give!
Soon, on the coastline near Zhoushan Island, in the dark night, the rebel representatives who had been waiting for two whole days finally saw a merchant ship coming from the opposite side.
As soon as the ship docked, the Star Sea soldiers unloaded hundreds of boxes from the ship.
When they opened the box to inspect the goods, the rebel representatives couldn't see it.
What is this?
It’s round and half the size of a palm. What is this thing?
The rebel representatives looked eagerly at the Star Navy officer opposite.
The Star Navy officer did not whet their appetites and introduced them directly: "This is the latest cantaloupe thunder produced by our country. Here is the safety plate buckle. As long as the safety plate buckle is pulled off, the cantaloupe thunder will explode after 8 seconds.
Causes shrapnel damage within a radius of 15 meters..."
Well, although those representatives of the rebel army were more or less educated, they were unable to understand most of what the Star Marine officers said.
Fortunately, the Star Navy officer then gave a demonstration, took out a cantaloupe mine, pulled off the safety plate buckle, and then threw it into the sea.
A few seconds later, there was a loud bang, and a huge wave suddenly rose in the sea, shocking the rebel representatives to the point where they almost peed their pants.
But the next moment, their eyes shone.
This is a divine tool!
If such a thing was thrown at the Qing army, the effect would be simply astonishing!
In fact, the decision to give cantaloupe to the anti-Qing rebels was made after a period of discussion by the staff room of the Ministry of Military Affairs.
Previously, some elders suggested directly sending Thunderbolt 1646 improved export rifles to arm the anti-Qing rebels.
But this suggestion was immediately rejected by the Ministry of Military Affairs.
Are you kidding me?
Although the fighting spirit of the anti-Qing rebels was pretty good, they were still just a bunch of rabble.
Their predecessors were either group trainers or bandits, etc.
And it is not possible for Xinghai Kingdom to send a team of instructors to train them for the time being.
After all, Xinghai Kingdom does not want the officers it has worked so hard to train to be lost in the Qing-occupied area.
It is conceivable that after those anti-Qing rebels obtained the improved export version of the Thunderbolt 1646, they may not be able to win the battle. They may even lose the battle accidentally and give the weapons to the Qing army.
It just so happened that a new product was successfully developed by the military research group of the Ministry of Industrial Affairs.
It’s this melon mine.
To be honest, someone has suggested developing this thing before.
However, considering that there are already weapons such as grenades, it does not make much sense to develop a close-range offensive and defensive weapon like the cantaloupe, so no one studied it later.
However, after the Battle of Malacca, cantaloupe was mentioned again.
After all, this thing is still very useful in trench warfare. Whether it is defending the trench or killing enemies who rush into the trench, the effect is very effective.
Because of this, the military research team continued to study this thing.
Of course, in fact, the technical content of this thing is not high, and it is not difficult to research.
The original version developed had an explosion radius of 25 meters.
But this is equipped for Xinghai Kingdom’s own army.
An export version like this, according to convention, naturally needs to be castrated.
Furthermore, the melon mines will be gone once they are used up, allowing Xinghai Kingdom to easily control the amount of melon mines flowing out, so as not to engage in acts of capitalizing on the enemy.
More than 100 boxes of cantaloupe mines total only about 2,000 pieces, which were distributed to various rebels. Each rebel army only had more than 300 pieces.
But these cantaloupes played a huge effect in the subsequent anti-Qing operations.
Near the checkpoint guarded by a Qing army, several rebels in rags were observing the situation at the checkpoint from a distance.
There were only about thirty Qing troops on the checkpoint, and they looked relaxed.
After these volunteers encouraged each other, they carried a bamboo basket containing eggs and staggered over, looking as if they were falling down at any time.
Seeing these people approaching, the Qing soldiers' faces showed excited and bloodthirsty expressions, and they reached out and touched the handles of the knives at their waists.
To them, these refugees who try to pass the checkpoint are toys that they can kill at will, and they may even be able to get some scraps of silver from the corpses and make a small fortune.
What they never expected was that when the distance between the two sides was less than thirty meters, the refugees reached out and took out something from the bamboo basket, and then threw it away.
Stones?
Resistance?!
This move made the Qing soldiers laugh out loud, and they were not alert to the danger at all.
Those things fell to the ground, and smoke came out. A Qing soldier reached out and picked one up, thinking that it was made of metal, and he should be able to sell it for a few bucks.
But the next moment, there was a loud bang, and the cantaloupe thunder exploded. Hundreds of fragments splashed out, turning a radius of more than ten meters into a murderous storm.
Because the Qing troops stood too close, three cantaloupe thunder swept them away, and each of them fell to the ground with their bodies covered with fragments.
“Succeeded!”
The few anti-Qing rebels who were originally a little suspicious of the cantaloupe suddenly became excited.