1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2356
Wang Tom's interest in exploring unknown things quickly shifted from the sea to the Ainu people. He was very interested in the "original ecological" way of life of the Ainu people, so he asked Shiro Amakusa to act as an interpreter to learn about it from the uncle and nephew. About the living conditions of the Ainu tribe.

When and where these aborigines living in Hokkaido, Thousand Islands, Sakhalin and Kamchatka moved into this area, there are different opinions even in later generations, and there is no definite conclusion.However, the way of life of the Ainu is obviously more primitive than that of the contemporary East Asians. They have not yet entered the farming society in this period, and they are even more backward than the Li and Miao people on Hainan Island. Most of them are similar to the indigenous tribes on Taiwan Island.

The Ainu have their own independent language, which is distinctly different from Japanese.Wang Tom has read relevant information before, and it is said that the Ainu language is very similar to the languages ​​used by the Eskimos and Indians.However, the folk tales and narrative poems mentioned by the uncle and nephew are still obscure after being translated by Shiro Amakusa. It is difficult to deduce where their ancestors came from through these clues.

Wang Tom believes that one of the reasons why the Ainu people failed to develop farming technology is that this group lives in the bitter cold area at high latitudes all year round, far away from the advanced civilization of the time, so they have not cultivated food suitable for their living environment. Crops can only stay in the primitive society stage of living by fishing and hunting.

The backward productivity made it impossible for the Ainu to build city-scale settlements in this area, let alone establish a country.Therefore, the Ainu are still scattered around in the form of tribes, without a unified social system to speak of.And this kind of loose social form is naturally unable to compete with Japan, which has entered the feudal society for a long time. The appearance of Matsumae Fan is just the beginning. Eat away bit by bit, and eventually this race will slowly decline and die out.

This historical trend is unlikely to change because of Haihan's intervention, unless Haihan can provide agricultural assistance to the Ainu and help them build the coastal plain in eastern Hokkaido into a large granary.

Of course, Haihan would not do such thankless things. After all, the Ainu people have little contact with the outside world, and their cultural level is close to zero. It would be extremely difficult to train them as a labor force with certain agricultural production techniques. , perhaps it will take several generations of time to achieve obvious results, which is obviously not a prospect that the Executive Committee is willing to accept.

After leaving Matsumae Castle, the fleet continued north along the west coast of Hokkaido.The two uncles and nephews have benefited, but they are quite dedicated. Regardless of whether the weather is bad or not, they have been on duty on the flagship's deck in turn, ensuring that they can provide the fleet with the information needed for navigation at any time.

However, the information they provide is not like sailors, who can clearly grasp their own orientation and direction of progress, but can only judge their own location based on the terrain and landforms they see near the shore.They will also take the initiative to point out to Shiro Amakusa where there is an Ainu village on the nearby coast to prove the value of their navigation work.

But according to the situation they described, these Ainu villages near the sea are not very large, at most a few hundred tribes, which obviously does not have the value for the fleet to stop at the shore for a special visit.

Two days later, the fleet arrived at the Shakotan Peninsula. The coast here is very steep, and many cliffs are more than [-] meters high. The scenery seen from the boat is quite magnificent.Many sailors who were resting in the cabin also came to the deck to watch the beautiful scenery together after hearing the news that there was a scenery to see.

For the sailors who participated in this operation, this is probably the most relaxing voyage mission in their careers, at least so far.There is no need to rush at full speed, there is no combat mission, and Tom Wang will take the initiative to slow down the fleet and even stop ashore to enjoy it when he encounters a place with beautiful scenery on the way.It's more like a vacation trip than an expedition.

After bypassing this peninsula, Ishikari Bay, which spans more than a hundred miles, is located here, the largest coastal plain on the west coast of Hokkaido.This place was also very famous in the era before Wang Tom traveled, and it was Sapporo, the largest city in the Hokkaido region.

The place name Sapporo also comes from the Ainu language, meaning "big valley".However, the Sapporo of the later generations began to plan to build a city in this place after Japan ruled Hokkaido in the second half of the [-]th century. At present, there are no cities located here in this era.

According to the nephew and uncle, there are several large tribes on this plain, with a total population of several thousand.But even though there are large valleys and plains with superior natural conditions, the aborigines have not yet entered the farming era, unlike the later generations of Sapporo, which turned every arable land on the plains into farmland.

Although there are many Ainu tribes here, Wang Tom doesn't want to waste time here.At most, these natives can bring some local specialties, and then barter for some Haihan's products, but they can't have more meaningful exchanges with Haihan like Matsumae, and they won't have any idea about the future itinerary. Bring too much help.So Wang Tom ordered not to stay here, and went directly across Ishikari Bay to continue north.

At the end of January 1639, the fleet arrived at Soya Bay on the northern coast of Hokkaido, which is also the hometown of the Ainu uncle and nephew.According to them, one or two merchant ships from the Matsumae Domain come here every year to trade with their tribe.

The reason why the Matsumae clan took so much trouble to come here to trade is, of course, because of the relatively large supply of local products here.Even in the previous transactions that Tom Wang made in Matsumae, many things actually came from this place.The uncle and nephew claimed that they could supply Haihan with better terms, but they were not bragging.

However, in addition to the fruits of their labor, these local products actually come from the farther north of Sakhalin Island.The Ainu tribe there is more closed and lacks the opportunity to conduct trade activities with the outside world, so they will come to this place across the strait to conduct some transactions with the local tribe.The local tribe then traded some of the items to the Matsumae clan, which was equivalent to eating a price difference in the middle.

Wang Tom heard these "inside stories" from Amakusa Shiro, and he also felt that these Ainu people were actually ignorant. Although this kind of buying and selling can be regarded as a junior businessman's behavior, they didn't realize it and didn't think about it. He wanted to use this method to amass wealth, and when faced with inquiries from the Haihan people, he unabashedly revealed the whole story.

"Arrange a boat to take them ashore, and see what they need to trade, and give them some." Wang Tom was not interested in going ashore to deal with these Ainu people, so he handed over the matter to Amakusa Shiro.

Wang Tom now has to focus on more important things. He has to decide the next direction of travel, whether to cross the Soya Strait and continue northward to Sakhalin Island, or to cross the strait eastward into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, along the Thousand Islands The archipelago proceeds to the northeast, exploring the routes of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Bering Sea.

If you want to go in the direction of the Kamchatka Peninsula, then Wang Tom will naturally set his sights on the Bering Sea to the east of the peninsula.The Aleutian Islands on the south side of the Bering Sea are like a string of pearl necklaces distributed between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Alaska Peninsula. The other end of the necklace is the North American continent.

However, in the current era, these areas have not yet been officially named. The familiar place names of the Bering Sea and the Bering Strait all come from the Danish explorer Vitas Bering, and this old man only discovered it after more than 40 years. Will be born, wait for him to find out the route from the Kamchatka Peninsula to Alaska, it will be a full 100 years ago.

Of course, these records have no special significance to ordinary people, and few people would consider what kind of strategic value this deserted and bitterly cold place would have.

But Wang Tom is not an ordinary person, he is a senior general with great power, and the information and resources he has far surpassed most people of his time, which means that he can do many things that ordinary people cannot achieve —For example, dispatching an armed fleet to travel thousands of miles to explore unknown seas.

One of the main reasons why Wang Tom chose to participate in the time-traveling operation was that he wanted to go back to the seventeenth century to realize his dream of sailing and become a great navigator admired by later generations.It's just that after coming to this time and space, although there is a lot of time at sea, there is not much time for him to really explore new routes and unknown seas.

Wang Tom needs to command the naval fleet to fight north and south, and play a role in Haihan's external expansion.As for personal interests and goals, in the face of such a major responsibility, you can only go back a little bit.

But this trip with the fleet did make up for his regrets over the years to a large extent, allowing him to finally use the power in his hands to do something special for himself.

If Wang Tom can lead the team to complete the feat of crossing the Bering Sea, then he will become the great navigator who completed the great geographical discovery in the history books, and the northern route from the Asian continent to the North American continent will inevitably be named after him , and the place names of relevant areas will also become names with special commemorative significance such as Wang Tom Strait, Wang Tom Sea, and Wang Tom Islands. What an honor it will be for a person who is obsessed with sailing!
Of course, such honors are not easy to come by. Even if Wang Tom has detailed maps of the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands, sailing into such alpine areas is still very dangerous.Bering, another pioneer of time and space, died of illness during the exploration of this route, and 28 other sailors on his ship lost their lives together with him on this journey.

Even though he had prepared sufficient supplies before departure, Wang Tom would never rashly think that he was ready to explore the northern route.Therefore, the goal he considered was not to go to another continent via the northern seas, but Bering Island, the starting point of the western end of the voyage.

Bering Island is located about [-] miles east of the Kamchatka Peninsula, but it is more than [-] miles away from the Zongya Strait where the fleet is currently located. This is equivalent to setting Bering Island as the end point of this trip. Now the journey is only halfway through.

If some supply points can be found along the way to ensure fresh water supply, then the supplies carried by the fleet should be able to support the journey to and from Bering Island.But the problem is that such a long trip will probably interrupt the contact with the country for a long time, and the cost will be far higher than expected. Tom Wang is not even sure whether the Executive Committee will support such a behavior.

So while staying in Sogu Bay, he gathered the senior officers in the fleet for a meeting and asked everyone for their opinions.

"This is an opportunity to build a career, but even in my opinion, it is very radical, full of unknown risks, and it is very likely that it will not be supported by the Executive Committee. So I also want to hear your opinions. Will you Choose between a bold adventure or a more conservative itinerary."

Tom Wang drew two different routes on the map. One was inserted obliquely to the northeast and went directly to Bering Island thousands of miles away, and the other was to go north to Sakhalin Island and then follow the coast of the mainland. Turn southwest.

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay. They thought that their superiors should be thinking about the return journey when they got here, but they didn't expect Tom Wang to have such a bold idea and mark such a distant destination on the map.

Someone boldly asked, "General, the place where we are now is already very cold. It takes a lot of manpower to remove the ice and snow on the deck, rigging, and mast every day. If we go a few thousand miles further north, How cold will it be there, can the general be sure whether our ships and equipment can withstand it?"

Tom Wang nodded and said, "Are there any other questions? Let's speak freely, don't be shy."

Someone asked again: "General, going to this extreme northern place must be very risky. I don't know what kind of treasure is there that makes the general so concerned? In my humble opinion, even if there are mountains of gold and silver in the place, it is not worth it. For an adventure, it would be better to return directly, to conquer Sado Island and occupy the gold and silver mines on the island, wouldn't it be easier than going to an unknown place to take risks?"

Another person asked: "General, even if we successfully occupy such a distant place, how can we move a large number of people to settle there? If the local climate is extremely cold, there must be no food to grow, and the supplies will have to be thousands of miles away." It's really terrible to transport it all the way!"

Wang Tom listened for a while, and he already understood the difference in the thinking between himself and this group of people. They simply couldn't understand how much impact this kind of voyage would have on the future, and naturally they couldn't agree with their own idea of ​​adventure.

(End of this chapter)