Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 149 The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming

Back to early August.Beihai Town's Ezodi combat operation, which lasted nearly a month, finally came to an end.However, there is nothing thrilling about this operation, it is really lackluster.

The Matsumae Domain Tax Office and the warehouses of Omi merchants in the Sapporo area were easily uprooted by the troops of Beihai Town.Under Zhao Xin's indifference and deliberate instigation, the angry Ainu killed all the captives.

Later, Zhao Xin officially named this place Pingyuan Town.He asked his subordinates to build a four-meter-high shelf with a few long logs at the location of the JR Tower in later generations, and painted it with white paint as a temporary landmark in the town center of Pingyuan Town.

Deng Fei's sea blockade campaign had no results at all.In order to avoid being noticed by Matsumae, he drove the Thunder God and waited for several days on the ocean five kilometers away from the shore.

What Zhao Xin did not expect was that because Michihiro Matsumae was killed in the bombardment of Matsumae Castle, the shogunate and the various branches of the Oysterzaki family were busy vying for control of the Matsumae Domain. The abnormal situation in the north was completely ignored.

The Matsumae family is in a mess, who has the time to worry about the Ainu people.So Deng Fei wandered around the Tsugaru Strait for seven or eight days without seeing the Matsumae clan's troop carrier go out to sea, so he had to return to Shachuan.

Wang Yuanfang, who originally wanted to prevent the killing of prisoners, was fooled by Zhao Xin from Pingyuan Town and returned to Shachuan.After that, he led the team from Shachuan to the south and marched to the small plain at the foot of Mount Sulfur.He found that apart from a small tribe of Ainu people, there were no ghosts of the islanders!The helpless Wang Yuanfang had to lead the team back after exchanging some food with the local tribe.

Liu Sheng led his troops to the east and marched to the seaside of Makomai.The terrain here is as expected by Zhao Xin, with rivers and lakes criss-crossing, and low-lying swamps and wetlands all over the forest.According to the communication between the guide and the local tribes on the seaside, except for the occasional fishermen from the Matsumae Domain who come to fish here, no one else comes here.

So far, Zhao Xin and the second phase of the combat plan designated by the Ministry of Security have declared "failure".

The large swamps in Makomai may be transformed into fertile fields, but with the farming technology of this era, it would be very difficult to reclaim, and it would not be possible to complete the reclamation without decades.But what Liu Sheng didn't know was that the sea area near here was rich in Beiji shellfish, and the catch of Beiji shellfish here accounted for as much as [-]% of the entire island country in later generations.

In response to the situation discovered during the implementation of the second phase of the combat plan, the original plan to build military outposts has also been adjusted.In addition to the villages of the Shachuan tribe, a military depot will be built on the seaside of Pingyuan Town, which has become Tuka's possession.

As for the originally planned Sulfur Mountain Military Station, Tuka sent people to contact the tribe there, and asked the locals to directly transport sulfur ore to Shachuan to exchange living supplies with Beihai Town.

For the vast land of Ezo, Zhao Xin's troops are seriously insufficient; and he doesn't want to send more soldiers and family members from the island country.As for the animal husbandry and feed farming to be developed here in the future, Zhao Xin intends to leave it to the hungry people of the Qing Dynasty in the future.

With the military cooperation of Beihai Town, the Shachuan tribe who incorporated seven or eight tribes near Pingyuan Town immediately became the largest tribe in Ezo, with more than 2000 Ainu tribesmen under their command.For those disobedient tribal chiefs, Tuka did not do it himself, but tied them up and fed them directly to the black bear.

Due to fear of the sudden expansion of Tuka's power, the foundation is unstable.After much deliberation, Zhao Xinsi asked Tuka to provide some trustworthy Shachuan men, who would be trained by soldiers from Beihai Town stationed in Shachuan Village.He also planned to distribute the old-fashioned revolvers produced by Zhao Liang's workshop to Tuka's men in the future.

As for Liu Sheng's concern about whether Tuka will turn against Beihai Town in the future, Zhao Xin is not very worried, because as long as the supply of revolver caps is controlled, the Ainu can only be "fish in a cage" --Can't make any waves.

When it comes to black bears, we have to mention the Ainu's "breeding bear sacrifice".At the end of winter, they would catch a bear cub and bring it back to the village to be fed by a woman.When the cub is old enough to stalk or scratch people, he is kept in a sturdy wooden cage and fed with fish or millet porridge.Generally, they are raised in cages for two or three years, until they are killed when a sacrifice is held.

(Scholars in later generations believe that there are many cultural connections between the Ainu's "bearing-type bear sacrifice" and the Manchu people's sacrificial ritual of raising pigs as sacrifices. This proves that there were frequent exchanges between ethnic groups in early Northeast Asia. Formed a unique cultural area.)
Liu Sheng originally wanted to bring a little black bear back to Beihai Town to raise it, but was discouraged by Zhao Xin.Zhao Xin said, brother, you want to take this thing back as a pet. Is there any way for my King Duofu to survive?

Before leaving, the companies of Sheng Haizhou and Huji were arranged to stay on duty at two military depots.Two months later, Li Ji and Pan Xiucheng's company will come to replace them.

Manzo and Mosuke led a construction team of [-] to continue building the road from Shachuan to the landmark of Pingyuan Town, and then build the road leading to the Yubari Mountains.

Director Liu of the medical team left a few nursing team members on duty at the Shachuan Military Station, and established a small clinic to deal with the headaches of the soldiers stationed there.

On August [-]th, the Thunder God hurried back to Beihai Town with soldiers from five companies, members of the medical team, and a large number of animal skins seized from Pingyuan Town.

It’s impossible not to come back, because the Mid-Autumn Festival in this time and space is coming.

A group of modern people headed by Zhao Xin and Liu Sheng have been busy since they came to Beihai Town, and there is no rest day at all.It's finally the Mid-Autumn Festival, so we have to get together no matter what we say.

And after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Thunder God will go south to Flower and Bird Island again to deliver cigarettes and animal skins to Shen Jingdan and Huang Maocai.The most important thing is that after going south this time, Zhao Xin is going to land in Shanghai and enter the hinterland of the Qing Dynasty.

It is said that the islanders in the Edo period also had to enjoy the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the activities of watching the moon are inseparable from "Tsukimi Danko".Zhao Xin had never heard of this kind of dim sum when he traveled to island countries before.On the night he returned to Beihai Town, Li Ji came to him and mentioned the Mid-Autumn Festival dim sum.

Zhao Xin thought that glutinous rice should be used as a snack, so he agreed without hesitation.Ke Liji's subsequent explanation made Zhao Xin dumbfounded.

It turns out that Yuejian Duanzi, a dessert, is mainly made of taro.Seeing that the day after tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhao Xinna looked for the taro thing!Make do with glutinous rice!

Therefore, the women of Zhi Nai, Dahe and other families made taro-shaped dumplings with the glutinous rice they received, and wrapped the dumplings with soybean flour mixed with sugar.Since this year is a leap month, there are thirteen dumplings in each plate.

Zhao Xin took the Yuejian dumpling sent by Zhi Nai and took a look, I'll go!Doesn't this mean the same thing as donkey rolling, except that there is no bean paste in it.

However, when each family made Yuejian dumplings, they all made a copy for Zhao Xin, a great benefactor, packed them in wooden boxes, and sent them to the Thunder God.

Well!On August [-]th, Zhao Xin felt dizzy looking at the thousands of boxes of glutinous rice snacks in front of him.You can't eat too much of this thing, you will get stomach acid if you eat too much; you have to eat it until the year of the monkey!
So he took a few boxes to give to Shen Xuan, but when he went to the yacht to see, Shen Xuan also received dozens of boxes.Since Beihai Town usually doesn't have any snacks to eat, Shen Xuan likes this kind of glutinous rice dumpling very much, so she directly takes it for dinner.

It is said that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the islanders in the Edo period, in addition to eating moon-appreciating dumplings, also made grass balls with seven kinds of autumn grass.Sitting in the grass ball, eating dumplings and watching the moon.So on the afternoon of Mid-Autumn Festival, the seaside is covered with all kinds of grass balls.Dare to take a seat in advance at this time!

Zhao Xin also heard from Pianshan's wife, Duohe, that to enjoy the moon, you have to reward both.It means that if the moon appreciation activity is held on August [-]th but not on September [-]th, it will be a "single moon appreciation"; in the cultural customs of the island people, it is very taboo.

What a mess of rules!
(End of this chapter)