Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 803 Black Water Development ([-])

On November 1649, 11, the Tatar Strait was raging with strong winds and waves. Except for the large motor sailing ships of the people on the east coast, it was extremely dangerous for any smaller ship to sail in such sea conditions.Due to the inflow of river water, some ice blocks have formed at the pier of Heishui Port this season.In the following days, as the temperature continues to drop, these broken ice blocks will gradually collide and stick together, eventually forming a solid "earth", sealing the entire port tightly.

In order to avoid damage to the hull by sea ice, a large number of ships moored in the port during the navigable season have long since disappeared. They either went south to Rishiri Island and Jeju Island for the winter, or participated in immigration transportation operations.Of course, these idle ships (mainly medium-sized fishing boats built by Heishui Shipyard) now have better places to go, that is, Jiaozhou Fort (in Jiaozhou Bay), Ningbo Mansion and Daishan Island where simple docks have been built.

A motor sailboat with a displacement of about 250 tons turned a corner, and then encountered a strong headwind on the side of the Great South Point (Cape Crillion) near Aniva Bay.While the sailors were in a hurry to adjust the yard, Wei Boqiu, who was on the boat, temporarily ordered to dock and planned to stay here for a while.Although the captain has repeatedly told Wei Boqiu that the weather has been abnormal recently, that the outside of Dabo Port will be full of ice floes at some point, and that he must return as soon as possible; point.

This settlement is called Qingquanzhai, named after a clear and sweet spring in the valley behind the mountains.Most of the residents here are from Dongchang Prefecture, Shandong Province, and they are all officers and soldiers who were cut down from the servant army during the mid-year reorganization. There are about 500 people, and they have been settled here for several months.They built villages here to farm, herd sheep and cattle, which was much better than the precarious life ahead.In addition to farming, they also built a tall lighthouse on the top of the promontory together with the construction team sent by Dabo (mainly captured by the Qing army).

The whole body of the lighthouse is made of bricks and cement transported from Heishui Port. It is equipped with a fire and a large concentrating concave mirror, which can illuminate a long distance in the dark night, which is of great benefit to the east coast ships passing here.Because of this, there are not only a tributary of the Japanese warm current, but also a part of the Okhotsk cold current coming from the north. The place where the cold and warm currents meet, the climate is complicated, with strong winds and heavy fog. Therefore, the route of Dabo, Heishui and Temple Street Vessels sailing up and down the east coast must be extremely careful, or risk running aground or running aground in the dark of night.

However, although the sea conditions are complicated, the climate on the shore is relatively mild.Qingquanzhai is located in the coastal valley of the Western Sakhalin Mountains. There are continuous mountains on both sides of the east and west, producing a large number of mountain products; the flat land between the valleys is long and narrow from north to south, and the land is fertile. Twenty degrees below zero is suitable for agricultural production activities.

The tonnage of the ship Wei Boqiu was on was only 250 tons, and it was modeled after the earliest ship type on the East Coast, the "Eagle of the East Coast" - considering the weak technical strength of the Heishui Shipyard, building such a ship is already within their current capabilities. The limit is reached.After the ship anchored in the offshore, Wei Boqiu took a group of entourages and guards in several small boats, and quickly boarded the shore.

From the Qingquan village, several cavalry rushed out, followed by a series of panting pawns. These people were wearing crooked leather armor and holding spears. It seemed that they were going to fight.However, after seeing the flag of the Eastern China Republic hanging high on the mast of the ship and Wei Boqiu and others who came ashore, they finally relaxed. A middle-aged man in the lead rolled off his horse and fell to one knee In front of Wei Boqiu, he said loudly: "Xiaguan, the mayor of Qingquan Township, Dabo County, Lin Dengwan, the captain of the Qingquan Division of the Dabo Garrison, has seen the deputy captain! My lord Haihan."

Wei Boqiu hummed, waved Lin Dengwan to get up, and then asked about the reclamation of this place.In Wei Boqiu's plan, the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Ezo land are the areas that the Blackwater Pioneering Team will focus on developing next. The climate here is not as harsh as in the north, but the land is just as fertile, so it has a high potential. development value.

This year, the four villages of the Amur River, Dabo, the area under the jurisdiction of the South Kurilin Reclamation Bureau, and the second prefecture of Denglai in Shandong have achieved bumper harvests to varying degrees. In addition, the army on the east bank has almost wiped out the Changping warehouses in the four prefectures of the East and West. In the sky, more than half of the grain in the field has been harvested, so the grain in the hands of the Heishui pioneering team government is still quite a lot. At present, some of it is stored on Zhifu Island, Kongtong Island and Yangma Island behind Yantai Fort. Part of it was stored on Rishiri Island (the winter immigration transfer center).

Since the grain reserves are at the most abundant moment in several years, Wei Boqiu naturally has the idea of ​​vigorously developing the southern part of Sakhalin Island and Ezo, and officially started the implementation in the middle of this year after obtaining Shao Shude's consent.The first step is to develop new settlements on the basis of enriching the population of the original settlements (mainly the three regional central towns of Heisui, Dabo, and Kushiro).Anyway, the people on the east coast are now firmly in control of the sea in this sea area, and it seems that this sea control will continue to be in control for many years, so it doesn't matter if the settlements are scattered, because there are no foreign enemies at all.In addition, most of the so-called settlers resettled were unbeatable soldiers from the various anti-Qing "rebels" who were cut down from the front line-mostly mud legs who were kidnapped-so they would not be completely powerless to resist.

Qingquanzhai used to have only one naval meteorological observation station here, with a few people stationed here, recording and observing the climate data of the nearby sea surface throughout the year.However, after the start of the large-scale development plan, the Shandong side transported a group of down-sold Ding Mingwu soldiers here, and appointed one of their leaders, Lin Dengwan, as the township chief here, and formally settled in the mountains near the Great South Cape. Reclamation began in the valley.After that, the Shandong front line also successively arranged for some wounded and retired soldiers to be resettled here, probably dozens of them.

"Old man Bao has the most land in the village now. His family has [-] mu of land, including [-] mu of cultivated land and [-] mu of forest. People came early, and the land is good land that doesn't need much care. Now he is planting Our vegetables have already grown a crop, and this year's income may be quite a lot. Unlike us, we are still eating relief food, and we have to borrow money from the bank (Northwest Reclamation Bank) to buy seeds, farm tools, livestock, etc. It can't be compared. Hearing Wei Boqiu's inquiry, Lin Dengwan immediately started rambling like an old farmer, his words full of envy for "Old Man Bao".

"Old Man Bao" named Paulchinski, is a Polish mercenary, in his 40s this year, and has experienced countless battles in his life.He fought the Ottomans, the Tatars, the Russians, and the Swedes. He was even briefly employed by the German princes and participated in the 30-year war for a while. His legendary experience is almost Could write a book.I didn't expect that Lin Lao would settle in a place thousands of miles away from Sakhalin Island when he finished his wanderings. There is nothing more magical than this.

Paulchinski was accidentally injured in the battle against Qingzhou City. Although he was not as short of arms and legs as some of his comrades in arms, the injury was not serious and he had no choice but to retire, and was arranged by his superiors to the newly established Dabo Qingquan Township, County, came to settle here.Because the name written on the household registration documents submitted by Shandong was Bao Erqin (the Chinese name was uniformly changed after naturalization), so other people in Qingquan Township called him Lao Baotou.Because Lao Baotou is a "veteran", that is, the so-called disabled veterans, in addition to receiving a large amount of severance pay, the government also gave him [-] acres of land ([-] acres of cultivated land, [-] acres of mountain forests) for free. )——his newly married Shandong daughter-in-law also got [-] acres of land for free—a few cattle and sheep, some metal farm tools, and grain seeds.In addition, the construction team who came to repair the lighthouse also built a brick and tile house in the east coast style for his family alone. This is a treatment that no one else in the village has.

"Old Baotou grows mostly vegetables and miscellaneous grains this year. Thanks to the blessing of God, the growth is not bad. Especially those potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc., the growth is particularly good. I am afraid that one mu of land can harvest hundreds of catties. It is really scary. The cabbage is not growing well, there are too many insects, and the yield is greatly affected; the cucumbers are also worse, there is too much fog at night in summer and autumn, and the few acres of cucumbers planted by Lao Baotou’s house are attacked by the fog, and the leaves are rusted overnight It died. Originally, Old Baotou planned to sell these cucumbers to immigration ships to earn money, but now it seems that it has all been ruined." Speaking of this, Lin Dengwan also smiled a little unkindly, it seems that he usually The "richest man" in the village, Lao Baotou, is also jealous.

What Lin Dengwan said about the cucumbers being attacked by the fog was true, and Wei Boqiu had also heard about it.The reason is that this kind of cucumber is actually a Russian cucumber (Muroma cucumber) that people on the east bank got from the natives of the Amur River, and it has poor anti-fog ability.The Chinese cucumber, which is called "Southern Manzi Cucumber" by the natives of the Amur River, has a much stronger anti-fog ability and a stronger body, which is worthy of large-scale promotion and planting among local farmers.

Wei Boqiu walked towards the village while listening to Lin Dengwan's introduction.And when they had just landed, someone galloped back to the stockade on the shore, and asked the people left behind in the township government to clean up the bear that had just been hunted immediately.Qingquanzhai is located in a valley between mountains, with deep mountains and old forests everywhere on both sides. There are so many brown bears that they have almost become a disaster. Therefore, the township government often organizes musketeers into the mountains to hunt bears.Wei Boqiu also happened to come at this time, they just hunted a bear that hadn't hibernated this morning, before they had time to deal with it, Wei Boqiu arrived, this is a blessing.

(End of this chapter)