Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1785 Vladivostok and North Korea

Lu Xiaofeng and his party arrived in Vladivostok on a dog sledge in early December 1678, a small seaside village located at the bottom of the later Golden Horn Bay. At present, there are less than a thousand pioneer residents from Shandong struggling to pioneer here.

Undoubtedly, relying on these people alone will definitely not be able to make Vladivostok, a port city that the Blackwater Pioneering Team attaches great importance to from top to bottom—Chen Ke even plans to move the ruling center from Blackwater Port to here in the future—in Build in the shortest possible time.Therefore, the two companies of the [-]rd Infantry Regiment, which had been stationed here in advance, have forcibly relocated many natives from the surrounding areas these days to participate in the construction of forts and cities.

Of course, due to the low level of civilization of the natives, the population is relatively sparse.Therefore, after the people on the east bank "collected" the Jurchen tribesmen near the city, they took into account many factors and did not go out to the distance, and recruited more Jurchens to build fortifications and build villages.They seem to be afraid that doing so will make their reputation too bad, so that they will not be able to win over, buy and naturalize the Jurchen tribes in the future.

However, people who repair forts and cities are always indispensable.Nowadays, as the source of immigrants on the east coast is drying up—existing immigrants will persist until the end of the next immigration transportation season at most, and the number is also greatly insufficient—Shandong, Ningbo and other places do not have much surplus population to come to build villages , So after thinking about it, the people on the east bank finally locked their eyes on their own "cash machine" North Koreans, asking them to send people, food and even materials to help repair the city of Vladivostok.

The Koreans are naturally very reluctant about this, because for an ancient dynasty, the so-called "Xingdae Campaign" has always been an extremely terrifying thing, not to mention going to the remote Hamgyong Road. How about a bitter cold place two to three hundred miles northeast?Although the Dongguo people seem to be more kind, and the treatment given by North Korea to send people and troops in the past is not bad, and these North Koreans have not suffered any mass death tragedies, but this kind of work is a kind of hard work after all. The work is heavy and the environment is harsh , the damage and damage to the body was quite large. Although the Korean migrant workers who returned from Shandong and Liaodong had some money in their pockets, many of them collapsed. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is hard money, so The North Korean side has always resisted this kind of dispatch of migrant workers.

However, as a de facto vassal state on the east coast, the Koreans have very little choice, even if they are very reluctant or even full of anger-at that time, the emperor Xianzong Li Wei of North Korea even openly called "Aqia" in the court, becoming a The second "King Aqie" who openly vomited swear words after Mingzong Li Yao, which shows the anger of the Koreans - but it is difficult to disobey the requirements of the countries on the east coast, so in the end they basically sent people out to work obediently , for peace.

For example, this time, the East Bank asked North Korea to send "at least 2 people" to Vladivostok to build cities, forts, and forts, and to bring their own food and labor tools. Complete tasks with quality assurance.Hanyang City did not dare to resist this, and agreed to send people and food to build Vladivostok City, but the number of migrant workers that needed to be dispatched was reduced to 2000 after bargaining.

Of course, the people on the east bank are not the Tartar court, let alone the Spanish colonial governor, and they will not just ask for North Korea without giving any benefits.As the saying goes, if a dog barks twice, you have to throw some bones. If you oppress the North Koreans for a long time, they will definitely resist. There is no doubt about it.The reason why the North Koreans have not resisted too much at present is that on the one hand, apart from the relatively strong military strength of the people on the east bank (the Battle of Baoen County instigated by Shao Shude back then, the entire North Korean army collapsed, the impression is too deep...), there are also The reason why the economy of the Kingdom of Korea is increasingly tied to the east coast.

Over the years, the North Koreans have earned a large amount of "foreign exchange" (gold and silver coins minted by the Dabo Mint) by exporting grain, medicinal materials, leather, iron materials, paper, honey, wood, building materials, and even daily necessities and handmade products to the east bank. Stimulated by these profits, various domestic industries have developed by leaps and bounds, making North Korea's economy more and more active, productivity has increased, and people's living standards have naturally improved somewhat.

For example, when the people on the east coast built the city of Vladivostok this time, they ordered a large amount of building materials such as bluestone, strip stone, bricks, wood, stones, and yellow sand from North Korea.This is not because the quality of the North Korean products is good, but cheap enough, at least much cheaper than those produced in Heishui County, and they are also responsible for their own transportation. For this reason, they also order from Kushiro Shipyard and Heishui Shipyard There are several 150-ton cargo ships.

Heishui County is not without complaints about this. This de facto San Francisco industrial base in the Far East has been responsible for providing mechanical equipment, building materials and many other commodities to various places for many years. The population has now climbed to as many as 5000, and the port throughput is also very large. Almost every month (except for the winter freezing period), a large amount of goods are shipped out of here, and then a large amount of food and salted fish are imported from the outside world. , livestock, fruit and other commodities, an entire industrial city.

But now the Heishui Pioneering Team has also calculated their economic accounts and started to purchase some relatively cheap goods from North Korea to save money. How can this make Heishui County feel embarrassed?For this reason, Liu Jianguo, the leader of the pioneering team who was still working in Heishui County at the time, moved to Miaojie County, because he was afraid of seeing the leaders of state-owned machinery factories, construction factories, wood processing factories and other enterprises coming to make noise, which would upset him. .

This time Chen Kexin took office, and at the beginning he placed an order for wood planks worth 3 yuan to the wood processing factory in Heishui County.As a result, it was later discovered that because of the backward technology, this factory only had some locally eliminated hydraulic machinery, with low production efficiency and high cost. Therefore, the price was even higher than that of the purely primitive manual North Koreans, so there was no way Forbearance, all follow-up orders are ordered from North Korea's Hamgyong Province, Gangwon Province and other places. At least their supply capacity is not weak, the price is low, and they can be shipped throughout the year (the port has no freezing period). It is barely bearable, so the number of wooden boards exported from North Korea has increased day by day in the past year.

The export of wooden boards is only a microcosm of North Korea's economic development in recent decades.In fact, the fast-growing domestic industries include iron smelting (Heishui County imports a large amount of pig iron from North Korea every year for secondary processing), coal mining (similar to wood boards, Korean coal is cheap), medicinal planting, Livestock breeding, grain planting, etc., the largest of which is undoubtedly the grain planting industry.

The floods, droughts, locust plagues, and earthquakes that have lasted for many years in Shandong have created a huge number of refugees. In order to feed these victims who should have died in large numbers in history, the east bank government had to spend huge sums of money to purchase food from outside. The largest food supplier is undoubtedly the North Koreans. It is conservatively estimated that they have obtained millions of silver dollars in this kind of trade that has lasted for more than ten years. Most of them are profits, so now North Korea has a lot of rich and wealthy businessmen -- of course, they all rely on the political powerhouses in North Korea to exist.

It is naturally impossible for such a huge influx of silver not to have a positive impact in North Korea.As a result, we can see that North Korea's business is becoming more and more active, the scale of industry has also expanded, and agriculture has also expanded due to the expansion of wasteland reclamation (the land abandoned during the Japanese invasion has been reclaimed in recent decades, and the population has also increased rapidly). Under the control of the many trade agreements signed with the East Coast (North Koreans at that time thought it was an unequal treaty, of course many people still think so), the scale of the entire North Korean economy is getting bigger and bigger, and over time , when this scale expands to a certain extent, it will have a profound impact on social order.After all, the new level of productivity also requires a new relationship of productivity to adapt to, especially under the pressure of the Eastern Dynasty, and the North Korean rulers and ministers could not "turn back the wheel of history".

Therefore, in order to build the city of Vladivostok this time, the Kingdom of Korea sent more than 1 migrant workers to work, and they also paid for board and lodging, tools and management costs. Although North Korea was very uncomfortable, they finally sent people over on schedule.At present, the more than 1 migrant workers are divided into three parts. 2000 people are building lighthouses and forts on the East Coast Island (later Russo Island), and 6000 people are building docks, warehouses, The government offices, military camps, markets, forts and other facilities, as well as the fields that more than 1000 east coast pioneers will cultivate are also located here.

The remaining 4000 North Korean migrant workers were sent to the later Soviet area a little northerly, about ten kilometers away from the planned military port and the main city (the place with the most people).Their job is to build a small fortress, which can house hundreds of soldiers. Its function is to guard against enemies who sneak across the blockade line from the north and the border line goes south. It is a barrier behind the city.After all, there are loopholes everywhere in the east coast ruling area. Even the Jurchen tribe on this land named Golden Horn Peninsula (later Muravyev-Amur Peninsula) has not been completely subdued, and there are great security risks.

It can be seen that the people on the east coast are still more concerned about the construction of Vladivostok, and indeed they will build it as the ruling center in the future, because the conditions here are really good, the port is wide and the water is deep, and it is easy to defend. Difficult to attack, rich in fishery, and there is a hinterland that can produce food in the rear. The front is not very far from Japan, North Korea, and Shandong. After losing the large and excellent coastline in South Manchuria, the Blackwater Pioneering Team decided to go to the sea. Here, there is indeed a reason, although this port is not the so-called ice-free port they dream of.

"We haven't even carefully surveyed the area more than ten kilometers away from the station. We don't know the attitude of the natives living there, the number of people, and the level of civilization. How can this be? Although Vladivostok is now in a period of major construction, this kind of Work that does not require much manpower and material resources, I think it can be started now. Especially this will be in the harsh winter, and most construction activities have stopped, so we have no reason to wait any longer." After settling down in the spacious wooden house, Lu Xiaofeng rubbed his hands in front of the warm fireplace, and at the same time gave orders to the officials beside him: "For the natives living in the surrounding area, my opinion is to save and naturalize them. Only those who are really stubborn can send out the army to eliminate them. In other words, we will try to turn these people to the East Bank as we did in the Heilongjiang River Valley in the north.”

"Commissioner Lu, in fact, we have already tried to naturalize the natives. Throughout the autumn, the army brothers dispatched a lot of frequency. A total of 2240 Jurchen tribesmen were relocated to settle around the city, but currently It seems that the effect is not good. According to our understanding, these Jurchens are not very attached to their birthplace or any other fixed living area. They are nomadic in the vast coastal area. To be honest, their habits are very different from those of the Jurchens of the Qing Dynasty in Liaodong, and this difference is so big—well, how to explain it, it is even bigger than the gap between the Creoles and the Spaniards To grow up and naturalize them, I think it will take a lot of effort. Whether it is worth it, I ask Chief Lu to consider it carefully. I always feel that it is really difficult to recruit immigrants from Shandong and Ningbo to settle in Vladivostok ?” A cadre who looked very young and was suspected to be from Bingtuanbao replied.

Lu Xiaofeng glanced at this young cadre who openly questioned his policy, and said unhurriedly: "Ningbo has a surplus of population, but Denglai still has a lot of wasteland waiting for people to develop, these people are going to fill in here There is such a good place as Denglai, why are young people in Ningbo willing to cultivate wasteland in Manchuria or even the bitterly cold place in the outer Northeast? I believe that without policy factors, this is impossible to achieve, but it is a pity , now Denglai is building the railway, and in the future, a large population will be needed for development, so it is impossible to have extra people to support us. In this case, if the Jurchens are not naturalized, tell me how to do it? Let more than 1 Do the North Korean migrant workers stay and settle down after finishing their work? Or do you plan to go to the Japanese archipelago where the population is exploding to recruit people, will you be able to enter?”

The young Bingtuanbao cadre was overwhelmed by Lu Xiaofeng's robbing, and his face turned red all of a sudden.Seeing this, Lu Xiaofeng didn't say anything, just sighed leisurely, and said: "Of course, there is no way to get people from mainland China. I heard that the fighting between Shun Kingdom and Qing Kingdom has become more and more fierce in the past one or two years. The scope of the war is also getting bigger and bigger. Even the former elite land of Nanzhili has been caught in the flames of war. There should be room for us to flex our muscles here. I just don’t know how Captain Ma in Yin County is preparing. Of course, whether these southerners can adapt to the harsh local climate may also be a problem."

(End of this chapter)