Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 805 Black Water Development ([-])

On November 1649, 11, due to staying in Dabo Port for two days, the temperature dropped sharply. Even with the partial influence of the warm current, a large number of people still gushed out of the sea off Qinghe Township (later Novikovo, Russia). ice floe.This makes the captain of the "Sakhalin Eagle" have to drive very carefully, so as to avoid the bad luck of hitting the ice floe and damaging the ship.

The place where the ship docked was outside the mouth of a small river. Since the navy has not yet conducted a comprehensive and systematic measurement of the hydrological conditions of this generation of offshore waters, the "Sakhalin Eagle" did not dare to get too close to the coast, and could only go to a farther place. Mooring in the deep sea can also avoid the coastal waters with more ice floes.

Near the estuary of the small river is an embankment with rolling hills and hills. It was originally built by the Japanese, but of course it is now taken over by the people on the east bank.Even at the beginning, because of the expulsion of the Japanese fishermen here and the Ainu tribesmen who belonged to them, the East Coast people mobilized a force of hundreds of people from Dabo to suppress it.For this reason, Japan's Matsumae Domain also sent personnel here to negotiate with the people on the east coast, and finally settled the matter with the Blackwater Pioneering Team government compensating the Japanese fishermen here for a loss of 5000 yuan.So far, on this piece of land first developed by the Japanese, the flag of the East Coast Republic of China has been raised.

However, considering the friendly relationship between the two parties, when the agreement was signed with the Japanese, although the land was demarcated to the east coast, it still retained the various economic rights and interests of the Japanese here.For example, the land they reclaimed can continue to be planted, but it needs to be divided to meet the regulations that each person owns no more than [-] acres of land on the east coast; the Japanese fishing boats registered here on the day when the agreement was signed can still continue to fish, but they need to submit to the agreement. East Coasters pay taxes; finally, they can continue to retain the right to employ the Ainu who are dependent on them.

In general, this agreement is acceptable to both parties.The people on the east bank gained sovereignty. Although the Japanese lost the land developed by their ancestors, the number of Japanese here is extremely limited after all. It is not an important place for the Matsumae Domain. At best, it is only a summer fishing season. It's just a resting place.Now that the people on the east coast have promised to continue fishing here, they have also maintained the economic interests they have always had before, and they have given the boss of the Matsumae clan a face-to compensate some fishermen in the area with five thousand silver dollars, so those who should let go still have to let go .After all, a weak country has no diplomacy, and the shogunate may not necessarily attack the people on the east coast for some enclaves of the Matsumae domain in Sakhalin Island. Then why would he risk losing his business and turn his face against the people on the east coast?

Besides, even if the bigwigs of the Matsumae clan wanted to turn against the people from the east bank, would the feudal lords such as Deba, Mutsu, and Sendai, who had already colluded with them to do business with the east bank, agree?The answer is obviously no!That being the case, why bother, if the people on the east coast want it, let them do it, as long as we continue to fish.

However, this incident also greatly stimulated Matsumae Fan.Relying on their growing economic strength, they began to recruit people in Japan to cultivate Hokkaido.In addition to a large number of farmers, there is also a considerable number of samurai classes, and these people have now turned to serve the Matsumae Domain.If we carefully check the number of Japanese in Hokkaido, the number may have reached nearly 4 at this time, which is several times the number in the history of the same period, which makes Chen Shuo, a student of Wei Boqiu and the actual person in charge of the East Coast Japanese Company, very worried.But this is all for the future, and the people on the east coast can't care so much for a while.

To the east of the embankment of the small river is a small hill that is not high, and the hill extends southward to the coast, forming a high cliff.There is a Japanese temple and several houses on the top of the cliff, in which some monks and a few Japanese farmers live.Of course, a tall lighthouse and a fort with eight long-barreled artillery ranging from 6 to 12 pounds have been built on the top of the cliff, and dozens of soldiers are stationed to defend the coast.

Tiny snowflakes fell from the sky, Wei Boqiu tightened his bearskin jacket, strode on the sandy road in Qinghe Township, and headed straight for the botanical garden.The botanical garden here has been built for two years, and it is already a small scale. In the summer, Wei Boqiu had to go to Yantai to take the place of Lao Shao's class, so he didn't have time to visit this very important place for the Blackwater Pioneering Team. urge.As soon as I'm free, although it's already late autumn and early winter, Wei Boqiu still took the opportunity to visit the townships under the newly established Dabo County (Dabo Town, Qingquan Township, Dushengji Township, Qinghe Township) and ran here Come and have a look.

Standing at the gate of the botanical garden were eight heavily armed garrison soldiers. Opposite them, there were several Japanese sitting or standing, who looked like samurai in their attire.Wei Boqiu looked up and saw three of them were sitting upright on a straw mat under the shed. The Japanese samurai in the lead was older, and his face full of vicissitudes showed a trace of anxiety.He carried three katana swords, two of which were worn at his waist, and the third was held in the hand of a young samurai standing behind him; A long samurai sword hangs from each waist.

"Samurai from Songqian Domain..." Lin Dengtu, the mayor of Qinghe Township who came to welcome Wei Boqiu, and a veteran who was eliminated from the servant army system, explained to Wei Boqiu in a low voice, "They are here to buy the fine-grained wheat cultivated by the botanical garden. It’s been a few days, and I still talked a little bit at the beginning, but recently I’ve been sitting here day after day, like a log. However, the botanical garden must not dare to sell the fine varieties separated from the pure line without the instruction of the superior. Matsumae, so things have come to a standstill."

Wei Boqiu smiled when he heard the words, and said: "Go and tell that Japanese to help us bring samurai to work for us. There is a lot of land, livestock, and food. It is no problem to have a meal every day. You can accept as many people as you come. As long as more people are recruited, we can sell fine-seed wheat to them.”

The fine varieties of wheat cultivated by people on the east coast have only undergone a simple separation of pure lines, and the seeds degenerate very quickly.The Japanese only know that the yield of wheat on the east coast is high, but they don't know that the wheat seeds have to be re-cultivated every year, otherwise the yield will decline year by year, and the seeds will eventually become ordinary seeds without characteristics.That is to say, if the Matsumae Domain still wants to maintain a high yield per mu in the future, it is necessary to order seeds from the Northern Botanical Garden for a long time, which is not a big deal.

Lin Dengtu immediately went to negotiate with the Japanese, while Wei Boqiu continued to walk forward, accompanied by technical staff from the botanical garden, and listened to their work report: "We transplanted several wild pear plants from the nearby forest. Young trees, and improved soil texture, hoping to cultivate fruit with good taste. In the case of rare fruit in this area, if this domesticated wild pear tastes good, it should bring orchard operators Nice profit."

In fact, the gardening efforts of the people on the east coast in the southern part of Sakhalin Island do not stop there.Initially, in 1645, some local gardeners had been sent here to build orchards and cultivate plants, but most of the various efforts failed.For example, horticulturalists on the east coast transplanted artificial apple saplings, first in Heishui Port and later in Rishiri Island, but their efforts failed several times, which made people very frustrated.

Even at that time, a frustrated Livonian gardener once asserted: "Judging from the climate here, it is impossible to grow qualified apple trees. It is very windy here in early summer, and it is easy to blow off fruit and flowers; early spring The season is hot during the day and cold at night, which tends to make the slurry in the trunk flow during the day and freeze at night, damaging the quality of the tree.” In addition, there are some East Coast apple tree cuttings carried by the families of engineers who came to work in the Far East, but none of them were obtained. Success, which further fueled the conclusion that the Heishui area is not suitable for orchard planting.

However, the people from the East Coast succeeded in the end, and the secret of success lies in grafting.That is, they first collected some wild apple trees from the forest, transplanted them to Dabo Port, and then grafted the scions to these wild apple trees.After careful care, the horticulturalists on the east bank finally achieved fruitful results after the fourth year - they harvested hundreds of fragrant and juicy apples, which tasted very good, even compared with the native varieties on the east coast. And with a touch of unique flavour.At present, most of these fruit-bearing trees have been transplanted to the botanical garden in Qinghe Township, where horticulturists will continue to conduct research to cultivate apple trees with better taste and higher yield.

In addition to apples, East Coasters also cultivated other fruit trees, such as plums and grapes, but the plums succeeded and the grapes obviously failed.The origin of the first plum in the Heishui area is quite legendary. The canned fruit produced in the local Ping’an County traveled a long distance by sea to Dabo Port, and then a soldier planted the remaining fruit pits in the ground. In the end, it produced satisfactory fruit, and was quickly snapped up by people. Now every household in the vicinity has planted plums.

As for the source of the grapes, it is in the nearby mountains, where wild vines are everywhere.However, after many years of cultivation, the technique of grafting improved varieties has also been adopted, but the fruits produced are still unsatisfactory. They generally have the characteristics of small grains, thick skins, and large cores of wild varieties, and their value is not high.At present, Qinghe Botanical Garden has transferred the research and cultivation of grapevines to Zhifu Island in Yantai, where the soil quality is very suitable for grape growth. For this reason, they specially introduced grapevines from Europe and look forward to making a big splash there.

After inspecting the botanical garden, Wei Boqiu stayed here for one night.The next day, he took a boat, took advantage of the favorable opportunity when the ice floes in the open sea had not yet increased, hurriedly left Qinghe Township, and headed south to Kushiro Port in Ezo.This winter, he will spend there, and at the same time pay close attention to the local immigration development work.

Now that the first county has been established in the Heishui area (Dabo County, with four townships under its jurisdiction and nearly 1 registered residents), other places must also hurry up!

(End of this chapter)