The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 156 Changes in Beihai

May 1727, 5, Xijing (now Irkutsk, Russia).

In a bustling fur market outside the city, fur trader Jin Jun squatted next to a Buryat hunter, rummaging through several bundles of furs on the ground one by one, looking at each one carefully.

The stocky and powerful Buryat man looked at a few selected furs carelessly discarded aside with embarrassment. The corner of his mouth was twitching, as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't know it was because of the language barrier. Still afraid of offending the buyer in front of him, he just pursed his lips tightly and remained silent.

"Thirteen mink skins, eight fox skins, and thirty-four ermine skins." Jin Jun clapped his hands, stood up, then looked at the Buryat man and quickly quoted the price, " Mink skin costs 8 cents, fox skin costs 1.5 cents, ermine skin costs 5 cents, well, it adds up to a total of thirty-nine dollars and 4 cents."

The Buryat man looked at the numbers drawn on Jin Jun's hand and was stunned for a long time. Then he shook his head and spoke in less than fluent Chinese: "Mink skins... there is less money, and fox skins... are also missing." . That..., that money is all gone..."

"Hey..." Jin Jun squinted his eyes, looked at him with some disdain, and said coldly: "Don't you know that there are more and more leathers now? If there are more of these things, won't the prices come down? Tsk... , if you think the price is low, then just take the leather home. I want to see if you can wait until next year to sell it at a high price!"

After hearing this, the Buryat man showed hesitation on his face and turned to look at his companion.

Many of these furs were hunted in the autumn and winter of last year, when animal fur was at its peak growth. It was thought that they could be sold at a good price in the coming spring. But they never expected that the price was actually much lower than last year, which made these hard-working Buryat people a little disappointed.

Of course, if you dislike the low price, as the other party said, you can take it back to the tribe and wait for a suitable price before selling it, and maybe exchange it for more money.

However, if the furs have been accumulated for a year, those unscrupulous purchasers will definitely dislike the fact that the furs have been accumulated for too long and have lost their freshness, and will take the opportunity to lower the price.

Moreover, if the fur price continues to be low next year, wouldn't it mean that we will lose some money?

After a long and cold winter, the food, salt, spices, tea, sucrose and other daily necessities accumulated at home have been exhausted. Hunting knives and bows also need to be replaced, and some iron is needed to repair the wooden house where they live. Ding, and the mother-in-law and children at home, do they want to change into some beautiful and comfortable clothes..., there are many things, don't they all cost a lot of money.

In other words, more than thirty years ago, when the Buryat people living in the North Sea (now Lake Baikal) region were not brought under the rule of the Bohai State, their lives were still very primitive, and their various needs and desires were also very primitive. Extremely low.

They don't know how to grow crops, and they don't have much interest in doing so. They prefer to hunt all kinds of wild animals in the mountains and forests, and they are usually fur animals. The meat of the beasts can be eaten and the furs can be used for warmth. Of course, the excess furs will also be exchanged with foreign traders for some daily necessities. Sometimes they would pottery gold in the river, go to the forest to cut down wood, and pick wild fruits, fungus and other wild products.

They are very mobile and like to follow the migration trails of wild animals. Their possessions are also very simple and have little property. They usually consist of a small amount of iron tools, wooden spears and bone arrows, hunting dogs, and tents. Well, some people will build simple wooden houses and pack away some of them. A habitable cave.

Later, the brutal Rakshasa people came and slaughtered and exploited them wantonly. They were either taken to the castle stronghold and turned into pitiful slaves and coolies, or they were driven out by the Cossacks and roamed around the mountains and forests, living a rough life. It was extremely miserable, and the population dropped sharply.

Just when all the tribes in the Beihai region were desperate, the powerful Bohai Kingdom came all the way from Heilongjiang in the east, uprooted the fortresses built by the Rakshasa people one by one, and declared that all the liberated local tribes were Bohai. The people under the rule of the country.

From 1682 to 1684, after repeated battles between the Bohai Kingdom and the Rakshasa people, they were finally driven out of the Beihai area and occupied this fertile land with abundant water, grass, and resources.

The Bohai State absorbed many immigrants from Han Dynasty, Korea, Japan and other places, and then moved them there one after another. At the same time, it also carried out small-scale household registration of the Buryats, Evenkis and Bruts in the mountains and forests. people, trying to bring them under their control.

The local government of Bohai State ordered all tribes and ethnic groups to pay a certain fur tax per capita - well, the tax was much lighter than that of the Rakshasa people. Each adult male only had to pay two fox skins or six mink skins. , women and underage men were reduced by half, and military service was drawn according to the number of tribesmen, so that they could continue to conquer new territories as the king's pioneers.

Immigrants who migrate from outside like to live a settled life. They usually build their houses on the coast (Lake Baikal) or along the river valleys, cultivate the local fertile black soil, grow grains and vegetables, and then rely on selling agricultural products to tribes scattered in the mountains and forests to obtain income. income and supplementary meat.

In the eyes of local tribes, these immigrants are really "magical". When they came, many of them had nothing and were alone, but they relied on their hard-working spirit and superb farming skills, oh, and their flexible business minds. , earned a lot of money from them.

Generally speaking, after twenty or thirty years of development, these immigrants seem to be living a good life and are much richer than the local tribes like them. Even sometimes, when the harvest is busy in autumn, they will hire some tribesmen to do some simple farm work, and they will be paid on a daily basis, and the payment is usually grain or soju.

Influenced by the long-term life of these farming people, the mountain tribes who once lived a minimalist life have also changed. The soft and comfortable cotton and silky silk are so addictive that people can't put it down. The spicy soju also makes a person addicted to it. The stout man felt inexplicably excited. The hard and sharp long knife allowed a brave hunter to harvest more beasts and furs, and the fragrant tea allowed the tribal people who were accustomed to eating meat to digest the greasy food. The intestines and stomach, not to mention the spices that can cook a variety of delicious foods, and the cheap salt that can marinate a large number of meat products, have fundamentally improved their miserable lives.

Well, this is probably what those government officials said, "bathe in the sunshine of the civilized world, experience the life of the civilized world, and then convert to the rule of the civilized world."

With the deterrence of guns and artillery and the strong economic attraction, after years of consolidation, various tribes in Siberia have basically accepted the rule of the Bohai State and the reality that these foreign immigrants are one level higher than them in political and economic status. .

Some immigrants who are smart have good business ideas. They exchange agricultural products with mountain tribes for valuable mink, fox, bearskin, ginseng, fungus, placer gold and other commodities, and then they can go to the big fur purchasers in the city. The inner government acquisition points controlled by Shang or the Bohai royal family were sold at a slightly higher price, and the profit margins were relatively generous.

In addition, they will also import some small commodities from the city to sell in the tribe, such as soju, tobacco, gunpowder, salt, spices, metal knives and other daily necessities. These small traders earn the price difference by acting as second-rate dealers, and they live a happy life. In order to obtain more human resources, in addition to clearing out the tribal people in the mountains and forests, Bohai State also used various channels to recruit immigrants to Liaodong, North Korea, Japan, and even the narrow and densely populated Jiangnan area.

The Bohai government's policy towards immigrants is also very tolerant. It not only provides full transportation for immigrants - usually hiring Qi merchant ships to carry immigrants, but also allocates forty acres of land to each arriving immigrant (requiring free service for the government) three years). After repaying the government loan (usually various agricultural tools, livestock or built houses), more land can be purchased at a price of three yuan per acre. For the land allocated by the government to immigrants, all taxes are completely exempted for the first five years, and taxes are halved from the sixth to the tenth year.

It has to be said that the immigration policy of the Bohai State is quite attractive. For those Han land tenant farmers with little or no land, being able to obtain a piece of land that can be passed down to future generations will undoubtedly stimulate their adventurous spirit. .

What, the land of Bohai is too wild and bitter?

So what, there is always more hope than living a helpless life with no money, no roof, and no place to stand, right?

According to the census (following the model of Qi State, which regularly checks the population data of the country every ten years), as of 1720, there were more than people under the rule of Bohai State - of course, there are still some hidden in remote and dense mountains and forests. The tribes in the country have not yet been cleared out, and they are among the "big countries" in the entire Lingbei region.

However, among the more than 400,000 citizens, the ethnic composition is also relatively complex, including Jurchens, Hans, Koreans, Japanese, Khalkha Mongols, as well as numerous local Daurs, Ewenkis, Oroqen and Bururis. Yat and other ethnic minorities.

Among them, those with the highest political and economic status are undoubtedly the Jurchens and the Han people. The former is the royal ruling class, while the latter controls most of the government official positions and technical positions in Bohai State due to the influence and interference of Qi State and Beiming State. At the same time, he also occupies an absolutely dominant position in the country's economy, and has been intermarrying with the Jurchens for a long time, almost becoming one with each other.

Because it has long received military and economic assistance from Qi and Beiming, all aspects of the entire Bohai State have been deeply influenced by the two countries. Even with the tacit approval of Qi, the three countries of Bohai, Dongdan and Beiming signed a military mutual assistance alliance against Qin. They agreed that if each other was attacked by Qin, they would have the obligation to launch military operations and fight against Qin. The country launched a counterattack.

Among these three countries, Beiming is naturally the most powerful and more populous. Without touching the new order of the Far East established by Qi State, Beiming has become the leader of the entire outer northeast region and fully enjoys a The satisfaction of "all nations coming to Korea".

Although the territory occupied by the Bohai State is extremely vast, it stretches from the Sikhot-Alin Mountains in the east, to the vicinity of the Yenisey River in the west, to Heilongjiang, the Greater Khingan Mountains, and the Mobei line in the south, and to the Lena River and Angara River (east-west) in the north. Horizontal), covering an area of ​​millions of square kilometers, but the population under its jurisdiction is too small, and most of the territory cannot be actually controlled. It is only on the map drawn by the people of Qi that they roughly circled such a vast land.

Under this situation, Bohai State has not had much desire to expand in recent years. The third generation of the country, Guarja Senghe, is preparing to adopt a policy of recuperation and recuperation. He must actively consolidate the internal foundation, vigorously carry out domestic construction, step up immigration and encourage citizens to have more children, and strive to digest the territory currently controlled.

Damn it, even if you ride a horse for a day or two, you won't see any people. If you expand more territory, no one will fill it. Instead, the national power will be wasted. This seems to be a bit of a waste of money, but This is not what a wise monarch should do.

It is true that the Qi people have also said that if they do not take advantage of the Russians' inability to defend the western territory, step up their westward expansion and strive to push the national boundary to the Yenisei River, once the other side accumulates enough strength, it will definitely pose a threat to the Bohai State. serious threat.

But the problem is that the materials that you Qi people have given us are not enough to support our continued expansion, and as we move further and further west, the supply lines are getting farther and farther. From the Heilongjiang estuary to the Beihai area, the distance is more than three meters. A thousand kilometers, even if many rivers along the way are used as transportation channels, the water and land are constantly alternately transported, and a trip will take at least more than two months. Not to mention, from October to March of the following year, thousands of miles are covered with ice and rivers are frozen, making transportation impossible. If the war is serious, we can only rely on our own accumulated supplies to barely support it.

Therefore, after decades of continuous expansion, Bohai State wanted to take a breather, reorganize its internal affairs, and develop its declining and backward economy.

To develop the economy, in addition to continuing to ask for material assistance from Qi and Beiming, we must also tap into our own potential, make full use of the various resources we have, and exchange more money and materials from outside.

In fact, there are a lot of valuable things in the territory occupied by the Bohai Kingdom. According to the reports given by the geological exploration personnel of Qi State, several rivers in the territory are rich in precious placer gold, there are also rich and diverse mineral deposits buried underground, and there are endless precious colored decorative stones in the mountains. As for the huge trees all over the mountains and the various precious fur beasts in the forest, there are countless of them.

However, due to the poor traffic conditions, it is difficult to transport these things. In addition to high-value, light-quality furs and placer gold, which can be sold to Qi and Beiming merchants via land and waterways, there are also Qin merchants traveling to Mobei in exchange for large amounts of military supplies and daily necessities. , and those numerous mineral resources and tall and strong giant trees can only continue to sleep in the barren mountains and ridges.

A few years ago, the Beiming government successively invested more than 1.5 million silver dollars to build a railway from Zhenzhou City (today's Vladivostok) to Shuangcheng (today's Shuangchengzi) in Zhenzhou (today's Primorsky Krai of Russia), allowing people to Bohai Kingdom looked at it and became very excited.

King Sengge of the Bohai Sea once tentatively asked the people of Qi if they were willing to help the Bohai Sea build a railway to connect its inland hinterland to Heilongjiang or Zhenzhou.

The people of Qi State just asked a few questions indifferently, and then Bohai State stopped thinking about it.

What is the population of Bohai State?

How much financial resources do you have?

How can one build a railway thousands of kilometers long?

Your country, Bohai, simply does not have the strength to carry out such a big project!

Look, the geological and climatic conditions in the Bohai Sea are so complex, and the construction conditions are extremely difficult, such as the wide rivers around the North Sea, the steep hillsides along the way, the permafrost in the eastern part of Lingbei (Siberia), and a In order to overcome the severe cold and heat all year round, the cost of railway construction is not low!

Think about it, more than 400,000 people are scattered in the vast Lingbei area. Even if you can raise money to build a railway, it won't be able to transport many people and materials. The input-output ratio is absolutely seriously imbalanced. The annual operating costs alone are It can bring down your national finances.

Let's wait. After our country has developed for decades or hundreds of years and has a certain population size and economic strength, we will then consider such a grand project as the railway.

(End of this chapter)