Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 804 Black Water Development ([-])

After staying in Qingquan Township for two days, on November 11, after the naval meteorological observers warned that the weather might change in the next few days, Wei Boqiu and his group returned to the "ku" anchored in the open sea again in a small boat. "Page Eagle", ready to turn back to Aniva Bay.Before leaving, Wei Boqiu left them 6 tons of rye collected from Temple Street and other places, which was enough for them to eat for three to four months; in addition, part of the beef and mutton looted by Li Renjun in the Amur River Basin (It has been marinated on the spot and stored in wooden barrels) and a considerable part of it was distributed to them, which can be described as extremely gracious.Of course, this also has the factor of Wei Boqiu's win over the local officials of Shi En, but this is not enough for outsiders.

On November 11, after overcoming adverse factors such as headwind, heavy fog, and large waves, the "Sakhalin Eagle" slowly docked on the northwest side of Aniwa Bay, driven by a small steam engine.There is also a small settlement here, also established this year, with about 11 residents, slightly more than Qingquan Township.

Most of the residents in this settlement came from the Daming Mansion in Northern Zhili. In July, with the main force of Lu Guonan being annihilated, the Yuyuan Army entered the neighboring Guide Mansion in Henan, Zhending Mansion, Shunde Mansion, Guang The areas of Pingfu and Damingfu were rampant.The local landlords armed the Daxing regiment to practice, and they fought lively with "rebels" such as the Yuyuan Army, Dongping Bandits, and Mule Army.Since most of the armed forces trained by the landlord regiment were new and lacked experience in battle, they often took a defensive position against these large rebels, allowing the Yuyuan Army and other armed forces to plunder the countryside.

To put it bluntly, these people in the Yuyuan Army are actually armed with half people and half bandits. Although they strongly advocate the resistance to the Qing Dynasty, their daily behavior is no different from that of bandits.Therefore, they mainly pay more attention to the "hard currency" among bandits such as women, goods, livestock, food, and armaments. As for the local population, they should sell half and half to the bandits in yellow, and make a good friend with them At the same time, I bought some good things like leather armor, spears, bows and arrows for use.

Since most of the rebels are from Shandong, they are unwilling to sell the Shandong people to the bandits in yellow clothes. Therefore, the people in the neighboring provinces of Henan and North Zhili are in bad luck, and many whole townships and villages are taken into captivity. empty.On the way to transfer these people to Jinan, there are countless people who have tossed and turned in the ravines due to hunger, thirst, infirmity, and the situation is unbearable.

But in this way, those who can reach Jinan alive are naturally young and strong. They only need to be raised for ten days and a half months, and then they can walk all the way to Dengzhou Prefecture under the "escort" of the soldiers on the east coast , and then wait for the next step.Dengzhou has a large land area and few people, and there are many places where they can be resettled. Therefore, at least half of these people were resettled in the Terengganu Prefecture on the spot, and a fort was built there to prepare for farming.As for the remaining people, due to the tight capacity, they can only go to the rear on the medium-sized fishing boats produced by the Blackwater Shipyard.This kind of ship has a small tonnage and average quality. When it bumps back and forth in the Liaohai Sea and the Sea of ​​Japan in summer and autumn, there are often news that the whole ship capsizes and all the immigrants are buried in the belly of the fish, which makes people shudder.

But no matter what, the rest of the Ming people who came to the Heishui area are finally blessed people (landlords may not be counted).Since the Qing Dynasty fully recognized the various rights and interests of the vested interests of the Ming Dynasty in exchange for rapid stability of the world, the situation of land annexation in these places has not eased slightly, and more than [-]% of the people are still working as tenants for the landlords. Just make ends meet.If something happened, such as a family member's illness or something, it would immediately lead to bankruptcy, and selling children and daughters was inevitable. Therefore, their life was really not satisfactory, and it could even be said to be miserable.

But it was different in Sakhalin Island. The Blackwater Pioneering Team government gave each adult man and woman five acres of land on credit, allowing them to cultivate freely. After five years of continuous tax payment, the land would belong to them permanently.Then they can save money and buy up to 25 mu of arable land and [-] mu of slope pond forest land at a preferential price (five yuan per mu), so as to buy a rich family property for themselves and their children and grandchildren.

Although Sakhalin Island is a place of bitter cold in the eyes of Ming people, compared with the Central Plains that has been cultivated for 2000 years, the land here is still very fertile.Even if only one season of rye or oats can be planted a year, it is no problem to harvest seven to eighty catties after one mu of land is prepared. The husband and wife can harvest seven to eight hundred catties a year on ten acres of land. Nutritious and extremely rich, it can be called the best among grains, so it is enough for them to chew.

What's more, in normal times, they can also go to the field to harvest hay - because the land is sparsely populated, this thing is everywhere - and feed the livestock that also get credit from the government, which is another income.Also, every summer and autumn, a large number of salmon in the sea swarm into the river on the bank, almost filling the entire river surface. At this time, you can collect hundreds of catties with your eyes closed. After cleaning, dry them and save them for winter. No problem eating at all.

If you have free time, courageous and experienced people can also go to the mountains to collect some wild goods, or simply hunt some large animals such as wild boars, roe deer, deer, bears, etc., to obtain income; as for the timid and honest mud legs Well, you can also go to the government's construction site to sell your strength, earn some money and pay the taxes of the year.

In short, as long as you have hands and feet, and you are not lazy, your life will only get better and better in the southern part of Sakhalin Island, where the land is fertile, the products are abundant, and there is no contradiction between man and land, and a virtuous circle will form.But if you dress warmly and eat enough, if you have the conditions (there is a school nearby), then send the doll to a government school to learn how to read. How hard is it to live a life of petting, bending over and doing coolies in the end?I heard that the yellow-clothed thieves—well, the yellow-clothed heavenly soldiers—are the ancestors of the Song Dynasty. Naturally, they belong to my Chinese orthodoxy. Let's follow them. In short, we don't want to insult our ancestors.

Wei Boqiu had no intention of staying too long in this place called Dushengji Township (later Aniva City, Sakhalin State, Russia, named after the first batch of immigrants came from Dushengji, Daming Prefecture of Northern Zhili), so as soon as he landed He inspected the reclamation work here.Construction here started almost at the same time as Qingquan Township, and it also belongs to Dabo County.

Seriously speaking, because it is close to Dabo Port, the regional center in the southern part of Sakhalin Island, its vitality is much better than Qingquan Township in a remote cape.In addition to reclaiming land and building settlements, the local residents are very proactive in generating income for themselves.They often flock into the mountains to collect fungus on the trunks of rotten and fallen linden trees; sometimes they will deliberately cut down some trees so that they can continue to collect a large number of fungus in the second year.Of course, actively cutting down trees is a violation of the "Forest Resources Law" promulgated by the East Coast Republic seven or eight years ago, but because it is difficult to supervise, this kind of behavior is repeatedly prohibited.

The oyster picking industry and sea vegetable fishing industry here are also very developed.Especially the oysters in Aniva Bay have always been famous for their delicious taste, and they are large in size and of great economic value.As for the sea vegetable fishing industry, the scale is even more developed.Not long after the establishment of Dushengji Township, some businessmen who got rich first arrived here in small wooden boats built by themselves from Dabo Port. Because the sea vegetables here are the most famous, the leaves are long and narrow, and they are very good for fishing. value.

At this time, the Dabo merchants who flock here bring their own Ainu laborers, and use a long wooden pole with an iron hook tied to the top to catch sea vegetables from the bottom of the sea.The sea vegetables caught are dried on the rocks by the sea, and then tied up. Most of them are used for their own use, and a small part is exported to North Korea, Japan's Matsumae Domain, and Shandong Denglai Second Prefecture.People in these areas still have the habit of eating sea vegetables, so the sales volume is not bad.

In addition to fishing for sea vegetables, merchants also hire cheap Ainu people to catch sea cucumbers, sea crabs, sea shrimps and other signature specialties of Sakhalin Island, which are rich in resources, every summer and autumn.They use large nets to catch crabs and fine nets to catch shrimps. The caught crabs are boiled on the spot in a pot filled with sea water, and then the crab meat is taken out from the crab claws and legs, dried and packed.Crab meat is a relatively expensive food in North Korea, Ming Dynasty (especially in the south) and Japan, and can obtain higher profits.

If the profit of crab meat is higher, then sea cucumber is an even more valuable ingredient for Chinese people, and it is almost completely sold.At present, at the seaside of Dushengji Township, the merchants who fish for sea vegetables in summer even hired some Ainu and even Japanese fishermen to dive to the bottom of the sea with simple tools. The harvest is unimaginable. It can be seen how amazing the wealth is on this virgin land that has been dormant for countless years.As for sea prawns, they are relatively cheap. They are generally used to make shrimp paste and exported to Shandong for military supplies.

Wei Boqiu sighed secretly while listening to the local officials' introduction in mandarin with a strong accent, and decided to find a way to recruit more people from Daming after the spring of the next year.Although the climate here is cold, the wealth deposited over tens of thousands of years is astonishing. There are countless giant trees in the vast forest, various seafood in the sea, mountain prey on land, and fish, mussels and pearls in the river.If there are tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people working hard here, it only takes two or three generations to form a wealthy country here.

On November 11, Wei Boqiu finished his inspection and also left some supplies for the settlers in Dushengji Township. Then he left this place by boat and went to another settlement across the strait, which is also the Heishui Botanical Garden (specialized Cultivate fine seeds, develop horticultural business) to the location.

(End of this chapter)