Chapter 606:
Chapter 593 – The Refugee Wave
Since May, the Ottoman government has subconsciously cut down on relief food, and bread, which was already mixed with leaves and sand, is now unsecured.
The stomach could not be deceived, and discontent ran high among the refugees. News of food shortages spread through the camps, and all kinds of rumors flew around.
Inside a refugee camp on the border of Persia, Akjol, who had just received a day’s worth of food, came out disgruntled.
A fist-sized potato was all the food he had today. Not to mention adults, even children of five or six years old do not have enough to eat.
Oh, there were no young children left in the refugee camp, the youngest were half-grown boys in their teens. In the years of fleeing, the first to die are the young children and the old people.
The Ottoman Empire was already poor, and having enough to eat had always been a luxury for the majority of the population. After becoming refugees, it was even more so.
After getting the food, Akjol immediately left with a few friends and relatives. It was not safe in the camp, and if they didn’t stick together, they might become food in other people’s mouths at any time.
Humanity was not worth mentioning in front of hunger. Along the way Akjol had seen too many scenes of easy food, and now he didn’t dare to trust anyone completely.
One of his companions asked worriedly, “Akjol, you’ve seen a lot, now that the food is getting less and less, what should we do back there?”
They were considered to have a bottom line among the refugees, even if they were starving, they did not learn others to eat human flesh.
Of course, this bottom line was only limited to now, if it continued to go on, no one could guarantee that they would not be assimilated.
Akjol replied bitterly, ”The food that can be found in the surrounding area has been eaten up by everyone. The rear army has blocked the roads and prohibited anyone from passing through.
Now if you don’t want to starve, you can only risk crossing the border line and go to the Persians’ territory to make a living. I’m afraid the officials in the country feel the same way, and they can’t wait for all of us to die.”
The former Sultan’s government is mainly responsible for the deterioration of the situation to this point. Since the government did not control the refugees in time for effective relief, it created more refugees.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been so many war refugees created by the Russians alone.
After the initial war refugees were created, the Ottoman government failed to provide timely relief. There were more and more refugees, and it was no longer possible to fill their stomachs by begging, so many people gave up their moral bottom line and began to forcefully take food from the people along the way.
After Pandora’s Box was opened, it could never be closed. The people who were robbed of their food by the refugees became new refugees, and then the cycle began to repeat itself.
It was only after the war was over that the Ottoman government began to deal with the refugee problem, by which time the situation had gotten out of hand.
The Ottoman government adopted brutal means of repression while providing relief to the refugees, and only then did it manage to establish order.
By this time it was already too late, and the refugee crisis turned into a national crisis. Due to the previous inaction of the Ottoman government, many among the refugees were very hostile to the government.
Akjol, a craftsman, was making a living in the city, and could barely read a few words, had a few insights, and knew a few things about the current situation.
The Ottoman Al-Shabaab was well-packaged with propaganda and had a good reputation in the country, and was held in high regard by many, and Akjol was no exception.
I thought that after Al-Shabaab came to power, they would arrange for everyone to return to their homes and resume production, but instead they were deported to the border in the name of decentralized resettlement.
As the amount of food distributed decreased day by day, and the government did not give any explanation, Akoyol has gradually become desperate for the government.
Going to Persia to talk about life, this is the gossip circulating in the refugee camps, the general meaning is to complain: Persia this year’s grain harvest, the government went to Persia to borrow food failed.
The Ottoman-Persian border is long, and in some places it is still divided by mountains and forests, so it is very difficult to completely seal the border.
Some people have already ventured across the borderline in front of them, but all of them have never returned, and the situation on the other side is unknown. Just a few kilometers away on the borderline, there were still unlucky people caught by the Persians hanging from poles.
“But what happens when we meet the Persians, they are a bunch of foreign-accented men, ruthless!”
As he said this, John the Schenker was still trembling, as if the Persians were right in front of him.
Akjol shook his head, “The lack of food in the country is real, this war has produced millions of refugees, the country is really out of money.
I’m afraid it’s a dream to expect those officials to purchase food relief from their own pockets. I’m afraid you’ve heard that some people are proposing to cut the population according to tradition in order to survive the food crisis.
If this turns out to be true, I’m afraid that all of us ordinary people with no background will be purged.
If we don’t run now, we won’t be able to run even if we want to later on. I’ve already thought about leaving now, we’ll pretend to be digging wild vegetables, and in case the Persians find out, we’ll just bite the bullet and say that it’s a mistake, but the big deal is that we’ll get a beating.”
When he said this, Akjol had no bottom in his heart, but in order to survive, he had to pull the crowd to run with him.
Xenophobia was very serious in this era, if one entered a foreign land alone, how could one survive?
There were now thousands of refugees on the borderline, and the Persians were bound to intercept them as long as they didn’t want to be hit by a wave of refugees.
This is the time to test the luck, if you are unlucky to meet the guards patrol, death will be in vain.
Just take a beating, can retrieve a life of good things, that are the luck of the Lord only have the treatment. Ordinary people are hung on the pole, used to make an example of a hundred.
……
Inside the Ottoman barracks, not far from the camp, Major General Shentilk, who was in charge of implementing the refugee deportation program, was at a loss.
Despite the fact that he kept putting out messages to lure them, cutting food supplies to exert pressure, and encouraging the refugees to go to Persia to make a living, too few of them succeeded in crossing the border line.
The “few” is a relative term, as hundreds or thousands of refugees are now entering Persia every day along the long border, and the Persian guards are beginning to be put on alert.
But compared to the entire refugee population, this number is almost negligible. Watching the granary bottoming out day by day, Major General Shentilk had become anxious.
“Gentlemen, we are about to run out of food, after half a month we will be completely out of food, no matter what we must send the refugees away within half a month.
Now that the Persians are watching very closely, the success rate of the refugees crossing the borderline is very low. Especially after the bloody massacres by the defenders, many refugees don’t dare to cross the border.
This situation has to change, or else the consequences will be clear to everyone.”
A young officer asked intolerantly, “General, is there really no other way? You have to know that with the ruthlessness of the Persians, if the refugees are allowed to cross, at most one in ten will end up surviving.”
Major General Shen Dilk shook his head, “It would be good to have one or two out of ten, it’s better than staying and waiting to die. I would like to remind you all to put away your pitiful sympathies.
You should know clearly that there weren’t that many refugees in the first place, and it’s because of certain people’s sympathy that led to the current situation.
If no changes are made, all Ottomans will become refugees. The government’s reserves have long been depleted by the war, the treasury could run on rats, and even military operations to suppress the rebellion have been suspended in order to provide relief to the refugees.
To tell you the bad news, this year’s domestic food production is expected to be only about 60% of a normal year. If we don’t send the refugees away, we won’t be able to wait for the fall harvest for everyone to go hungry.”
The Ottoman Empire still had rich experience in dealing with famine. According to the tradition of the Turkic people, usually at times like this, they waged wars, through which they reduced the population and got through the crisis.
This ancient practice, unfortunately, was becoming increasingly anachronistic. With the advent of the age of hot weapons, the Ottoman Empire went into decline and no longer had the strength to attack and conquer.
After a half a dozen moments of silence, a middle-aged officer suggested, “General, the Persians have increased their guard, and if we want to let most of the refugees through, we must first take care of the defenders.
Why don’t we have our soldiers disguise themselves as refugees and directly attack the Persian defenders, using force to tear open an opening and let the refugees through.
To be on the safe side, it’s best to hold a wall within a fifty-mile radius, letting the refugees know that there’s no food in the surrounding area and cutting off any illusions of them coming back.”
“The Ottoman Empire is not a big deal nowadays, and the tens of miles around the refugee camps have long since been decimated, and the locals have been turned into refugees.
The local people have also been turned into refugees. After seeing more and more of them, everyone’s sympathy is gradually exhausted, and many people begin to regard the refugees as a scourge. This statement is not wrong, human nature can not stand up to the test of hunger.
……
In the early morning of May 18, 1875, the Ottoman army took off their uniforms, disguised themselves as refugees, and launched a surprise attack on the Persian defenders from a number of locations.
Caught off guard, the Persian defenders were directly blindsided by the sudden battle. Without waiting for the Persian government to react, what followed was an uncountable army of refugees.
In one day, millions of refugees crossed the border line and poured into Persian territory. Under the guidance of the Ottoman army, the refugees were like roving bandits crossing the border, wreaking havoc in the Persian territory.
This was just the beginning, as the Ottoman government continued to expel refugees from the country to the Persian territory, as if they were treating Persia as a scrap yard.
(End of chapter)