1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 940 Beiming's Difficult Development

On September 1677, 9, Guanglingwei, Kuye Island (now Starodubskoye, a coastal town in the southwest of Sakhalin Island, Russia).

Three armed merchant ships from the Qi and Ming families sailed into the Guanglingwei Wharf in a state of embarrassment, and docked at the slightly crude wooden trestle.Several local Ainu people took the cables thrown by the sailors, tied them to the pier stakes, and looked at the ship expectantly.

"Damn, we are not a transport ship to deliver supplies to you, so how can we give you extra drinks!" Several sailors got off the boat and waved away the Ainu.Then I looked around, ready to find the person in charge of the dock, ask for some wood and sails, and make some repairs to the ship that was hit by another storm.

The aborigines on Kuye Island are mainly Fayaka (Nivkh), Hezhe, Ainu, etc., with ugly faces, thick bodies, long and thick hair, and some people still wear braids.Many local immigrants jokingly call it "the country of the hairy people, who grow hair for human beings", and the aboriginals in Zhenzhou in the west who are called "fish skin tartars" are all considered barbarians, and it takes a long time to complete the process. Only when the king is tamed can he turn barbarians into summer.

Of course, the reason why these aborigines have thick and vigorous hair is due to the evolution of human beings. They need to adapt to the environment. The weather on the island is extremely cold, and covered by hair, they can somewhat protect against the cold, right?
The former Yunzhou Town, now Beiming, has colonized this big island for nearly 20 years, and its population has grown to more than 500. More than ten towns with more than [-] people have been established, and nearly [-] colonial guards and villages have been established. place.However, due to the climate and environment, most of the population and settlements are located in the warmer southern half of the island.

In the just-concluded Korean War, the Northern Ming army captured more than [-] Qin troops in addition to capturing a large number of Koreans.All these people were dispatched by the Beiming government to several sparsely populated territories such as Zhenzhou, North Xianning Province of North Korea, and Kuye Island, in order to enrich local human resources and open up more immigrant settlements.

And Guanglingwei, where the three merchant ships docked, was established three years ago, with a population of only about eighty.Residents mainly rely on planting potatoes, wheat, millet, and soybeans, supplemented by fishing at the seaside, but they can barely meet the basic food needs of the local area. As for other daily materials, they all rely on the import of Yunzhou.

Last year, Beiming launched the Korean War. After gaining a large population, the local government of Kuye Island set up Suningwei (now Dolinsk, a city in the south of Sakhalin Island) more than ten kilometers south of Guanglingwei. ), Qingyangwei (now Sokol, a small town in the south of Sakhalin Island) and two immigration points will soon be connected with Anyang City (now Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City, Sakhalin Island) in the south.

Three armed merchant ships stayed here for four days, replacing and repairing the damaged planks and sails.During the period, they also bought furs obtained by local immigrants, and even a few rare bear skins.

The local Ainu people have a tradition of slaughtering bears for spiritual sacrifices. They believe that killing bears is to make them closer to the gods and to prove their bravery and strength.After they kill the bear, they will cut off the bear's head to worship, eat the bear's body, and sell the fur.

These poor Ainu people exchanged a bear skin for only two knives, a pot of cane sugar, a pot of shochu and half a bag of rice from the local smart immigrants.

As for the fur and meat of other animals hunted, the things that can be exchanged are even cheaper, which really made some economically minded immigrants make a small fortune.

Like all other new settlements on the island, the houses in Guanglingwei are all built of thick and strong timber.The newly built wooden houses are spacious and bright, and almost all of them are covered and decorated with thin boards provided by the government.Side rooms for housework are also built next to many new homes.

In the courtyard of each small house are stacks of neat piles of firewood, which is fuel for the months-long winter season.The vegetable gardens around the cabin are fenced to prevent the poultry from being pecked at.Although there are still many houses of the new immigrants that have not been completed, but in this small village, it can be seen everywhere that people are carefully developing their family businesses and welcoming their new lives.

On September 9, three armed merchant ships left Guanglingwei and continued southward, preparing to return to Yunzhou before winter.
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On October 10, Yunzhou, Zhongxing (today's Ishikari City, Hokkaido, Japan).

At this time, most of the agricultural production in the Yunzhou area has stopped one after another. The hard-working farmers began to collect the straw in the fields into bundles, and then carried them back home as necessary fuel for heating in the winter.

Although, my court of the Ming Dynasty successively discovered several coal mines with rich reserves in Hechuan (now Shachuan City, Hokkaido), Jiangning (now Asahikawa City, Hokkaido), Maoshan (now Haboro Town, Hokkaido) and other places in Yunzhou, and Daminghai (now Honkai) ) in Zhenzhou on the west bank, there are also several coal kilns that have been put into production one after another, which can fully supply the winter heating needs of more than [-] people in China.

However, this coal is good, it burns enough heat, and the heat lasts for a long time, but after all, it costs money to buy it!Except for the rich merchants in the city, officials and officials with a little property, and those officers and soldiers who made a fortune from the war, ordinary people are absolutely reluctant to spend this unjustified money.

It’s cold in winter, the worst thing is to close the doors and windows tightly, spread more straw cotton on the bed, wear a few more clothes on the body, and stuff the straw collected from the field and the firewood felled in the forest into the stove, and the kang head can barely be used. It is warmed up and lasts for most of the night, and you can also sleep soundly.

During the day, the big guys put on leather jackets, wrapped in cotton clothes, visit each other, visit neighbors, brag about each other, gossip, and pass the day.

It's winter, I'm already idle in the house, I have no work, why don't I spend some money in vain to buy coal to heat the house, just to live more comfortably?For us ordinary people, this is a waste of money and property, and a waste of our meager family assets!
In this Yunzhou, you can own your own fields and houses, and you can still have enough food every day.Occasionally, you can spend a few bucks to buy all kinds of fish caught by those fishermen, and you can also get some meat, and you can live a good life.What is there to be dissatisfied with, just resisting the cold, which is much better than the life of refugees who slept on the streets and couldn't eat three meals a day!

I heard from the officials in the government that the current Daqin, since the grandson Kewang usurped the throne and became self-reliant, has plundered the people of the country crazily, directly collecting more than [-]% to [-]% of land taxes, and adding various exorbitant taxes. .

This caused countless Qin people to sail across the sea in boats and live in other places to find food and clothing.There are even many Liaodong people who can't survive, risking their lives to cross the vast jungle and smuggle into our Daming Zhenzhou territory.

Last year, in order to satisfy that Sun Kewang's greed for extravagance, the state of Qin brazenly invaded North Korea, planning to plunder those poor North Koreans.If it wasn't for me, Daming, who stepped forward, sent troops into North Korea, beat up the Qin army, and finally forced the other party to ask me for peace.Maybe, all the millions of North Koreans were taken as slaves by the Qin army.

Of course, Qin State has a vast territory, a large population, and hundreds of thousands of troops. It is true that I, Ming Dynasty, could not maintain a stalemate with it for a long time. In the end, I followed Qi State's mediation suggestion and ended the year-long war.However, with our powerful combat power, our Ming Dynasty rescued millions of Koreans in the three southeast regions of Korea, and brought them under our protection.

As for in the future, whether you are worried that Qin State will continue to be unfavorable to my Ming Dynasty, or even start a war against my Ming Dynasty, then there is nothing to worry about.

Not to mention that Ming Dynasty has the most powerful naval fleet in this region, which is enough to keep the Qin army at sea and prevent them from invading Yunzhou.Moreover, more than ten years ago, the Qi State made a security guarantee for the territory under the jurisdiction of my Ming Dynasty.Last year, it even signed a "Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance" with my Ming Dynasty, promising to provide full assistance and protection when the mainland of Ming Dynasty is invaded by foreign enemies.

In this way, with the security promise given by the powerful Qi State, my Ming Dynasty will not be afraid of Qin State's invasion, and I can live my little life in peace and security.

ZTE is less than [-] kilometers away from Changning, the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Before the annual port freeze, it was the most important foreign trade channel in Changning. There are large warehouses and warehouses around the port.

In addition, Zhongxing City is also an important fishing port and "industrial" town.

In the surrounding waters of Yunzhou, there are extremely rich fishery resources (Hokkaido fishing grounds), including salmon, pollock, herring, sardines, saury, etc., all of them are fat and big, rich in protein and fat, and the meat is extremely delicious .Therefore, near the wharf and in the city, there are more than a dozen fish processing plants, which turn the catches of each boat into cans of canned fish or barrels of dried salted fish.

And in the slack season after autumn, a large number of farmers flocked into the city one after another. Before the port was frozen, they seized the time to do a short-term "odd job", engaged in port handling, fish product processing, packaging and other work. Earn some extra pocket money.

When three armed merchant ships from the Qi and Ming families entered the port, there were already more than [-] large and small ships docked here, including fishing boats entering the port to unload their cargo, and some were loading various cargoes for trade in Japan, North Korea, Ryukyu and other places. Merchant ships, as well as a few immigrant ships that brought many refugees from nowhere... made the entire port appear extremely noisy and prosperous.

"To unload at the port, or to stop temporarily?" A Daming customs officer looked at the three large ships parked at the berth, one of which was still flying the national flag, and asked cautiously.

In Beiming, not only the army was built and established by the Qi State, but also many civil affairs aspects such as local management, tax collection, and import and export control were completely copied from the Qi State model. Specific guidance and management.

Although this Yunzhou trading company is just a private joint-stock trading company in Qi State without any official background, as long as Qi people are involved, various local governments in Beiming, including port customs, have to treat it with caution.

When entering the port for unloading, you must pay the necessary entry duties in accordance with the regulations on the customs commodity management catalogue.For ships to berth temporarily, only a small port berthing fee needs to be paid.The cost difference is hundreds or thousands of Ming silver dollars.

Well, that’s right. After Emperor Yanguang ascended the throne last year, Emperor Yanguang entrusted Qi State to imitate the Hanzhou silver dollar model and began to cast Daming silver dollars. Except for the different pattern and seal, the weight, size, and silver content of the silver dollar are almost the same. Consistent.The exchange rate with Hanzhou silver dollars is also exchanged according to 1:1.

Of course, as the closest strategic partner, Qi's Hanzhou silver dollars can still be circulated and used on a large scale in Beiming without any restrictions.

Except for the two merchant ships belonging to the Daming Royal Trading Company, which needed to unload some of their cargo because they wanted to present hundreds of valuable furs to the royal family, the three merchant ships that entered the port only stayed here for a short time before heading south to Qingyuan City (now Hakodate City, Hokkaido), traded with many fur buyers from Hanzhou, and sold the fur in their hands in exchange for a large amount of gold and silver or industrial products from Qi State.

To say that the city with the largest population and the largest urban area in Yunzhou is Changning (now Sapporo City), the capital of the Northern Ming Dynasty. According to the census conducted two years ago, this city has a population of more than [-], almost Nine percent of the total population of the Northern Ming Dynasty.But if you want to mention which city has the most prosperous business and the most active economy, Qingyuan City under the control of Qi State is the first choice.

Qingyuan City is the largest material distribution center and the largest fur trading center in the entire Yunzhou region, and as the only ice-free port in Yunzhou, it is also the core shipping center in the region.

Although Beiming acquired a large area of ​​territory in the northern part of Japan's Mutsu two years ago, Zhaohua (today's Hachinohe City, Japan) in the northeast of Japan's Oshima Island is a very good ice-free port, but most of the Beiming ships Ships still like to dock at Qingyuan Port.

Without him, Gein Qingyuan can not only provide more port services and ship repair and maintenance services, but also bring together a large number of businessmen from Qi and a large number of industrial products, providing unlimited business opportunities for everyone.

"Are these people immigrants?" After paying the port usage fee for two days, the sailors on the merchant ship of the State of Qi went to the city with them. They saw hundreds of unkempt refugees sitting in a corner of the pier, and they couldn't help being curious. asked.

"Those are all Koreans." A dock official curled his lips and said disdainfully: "The local officials in the three southeastern provinces of North Korea were ordered by our Ming court to recruit five thousand young and strong men to serve in our Yunzhou. The time limit is three Years, when the period expires, some money and goods will be rewarded, and then sent back.”

When everyone heard the words, they couldn't help but look at each other.

The Ming court had just put the three provinces in the southeast of Korea under protection, so it couldn't wait to squeeze and enslave the Koreans wantonly.

Nima’s, it is said that they have served for three years, but most of these North Koreans will be invested in several mines in Yunzhou, or engaged in difficult road construction, and other large-scale infrastructure construction. In the end, half of them will be whole Returning to North Korea is considered to be kindness for those vicious supervisors.

Don't you see, the earliest aborigines in Yunzhou numbered in the tens of thousands before the arrival of the Ming people.But so far, there is not much left.Battlefield cannon fodder, mine coolies, road construction, deforestation, and wasteland development have continued for more than 20 years, and there are probably less than 5000 survivors.

Now, the Beiming regime, which is in urgent need of development, has set its sights on North Korea, which has a more abundant population, and plans to use their numerous bones to gradually develop several core territories under its jurisdiction, and first lay its own foundation. locked up.If, in the future, Shenzhou falls into turmoil again, maybe it will be able to take advantage of the situation and intervene to restore the former Great Ming Wanli Rivers and Mountains.

(End of this chapter)