Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 857

At the end of January 1651, Kushiro Port was sunny.

This year, the weather is warmer earlier. Kushiro Port did not open until the first ten days of February as in previous years. Instead, the ice was lifted at the end of January. Regarding this point, the weather observation station of the East Coast Navy has long been Having made a prediction, they have spared no effort to collect various meteorological and hydrological data over the years, and then compiled them into books for reference by various departments.

Two small steam ice-expelling ships imported from the mainland by a Japanese company on the east coast, one on the left and one on the right, puffed out black smoke, and drove some drift ice in the center of the channel to the side to clear the channel for a ship that was about to sail .This ship is a flute-shaped ship transferred from the New China region, with a deadweight tonnage of 450 tons, and it is under the jurisdiction of the Navy's Far East Task Force. But for now, this ship is leased by Shao Shude to a Japanese company for use Carry out transportation in the Sea of ​​Japan, East China Sea and Liao Sea.

Due to the stable economic development in the past two years after the war, the east coast is generally optimistic about the future economic trend—even the officials of the Government Affairs Council—so they placed large orders and ordered a considerable number of ocean-going ships. transport vessel.For example, at that time, the Nanhai Transportation Company had as many as 42 flute-shaped transport ships dedicated to ocean-going operations, but the number of commodity exports dropped sharply in the second half of 1650 (the harm transmission caused by the campaign to increase tariffs led by France and followed by many European city-states After arriving in the country), these ships seem to have become redundant overnight.

As a result, the local Ministry of Communications hastily allocated a batch of flute-shaped transport ships that exceeded its own capacity requirements to New China and the Far East.For example, the local Ministry of Communications injected 6 redundant flute-shaped ships into New China's East Africa Transportation Company in the form of "capital injection". While occupying half of the shares (the other half is held by the New China Development Team), It also made up for the shortage of shipping capacity in New China—well, the real situation is that New China’s shipping capacity is a bit surplus, but this is not a problem. The demand for capacity will also increase day by day, so it is better to invest in advance.

A bunch of ships were stuffed into Xinhua's hands, and the Far East couldn't escape. The mainland also stuffed the quota of two redundant flute-shaped transport ships here. Joined the establishment of the East African Transport Company, and the East African Transport Company dispatched two of its own ships to the Far East to join the naval task force—by the way, another thousand German mercenaries were transported here (1019 at the time of departure, 1651 1 When they arrived at Jiaozhou Port in the middle of the month, there were 883 people).

The ship "Baobab" that is about to set sail from Kushiro Port is an "old ship" that sailed from New China many years ago. It is now rented by a Japanese company on the east coast. The main route is Kushiro Port—— Jeju Island - Yantai.Now Yantai is frozen, so the destination of the "Baobab Tree" trip is Jeju Prefecture, and a large amount of clean coal, honeycomb coal, wood and dried fish are also shipped along with the ship.These are the few outputs of Kushiro Port, which is struggling to start now. The quality of coal in this place is average, but the mining conditions are not bad. It is the second coal production site in the east coast control area besides Heishui Port; In addition, the timber in the nearby large forests, the saury produced in the sea, and the local briquettes made of coal gangue and peat are all important export products, barely maintaining the fragile pioneering economy of the area.

After three years of development, Kushiro Port now has a total of more than 30 men, women and children within a range of more than ten kilometers inside and outside the city. The agricultural products are mainly potatoes, cattle, sheep and seafood, and the industrial products are coal, Timber export is the mainstay, and life is not bad. The Japanese company on the east coast, which has a [-]-year monopoly franchise in Ezo, has not recovered its capital after three consecutive years of losses. Maybe it has to wait for the last investment in fixed assets this year. (Construction of the Kushiro Port Wharf) is completed, and this company, which aims to develop Ezo, will be able to turn losses into profits.

I think back then, when the Japanese company was first established, Chen Shuo, who presided over the actual operation of the company, and his teacher and backstage Wei Boqiu were so high-spirited. They planned to turn losses into profits within one to two years, and occupy Kushiro Port and its nearby bosses. In one area, more than 4000 immigrants immigrated at the same time.But now it seems that they are really too optimistic. In the first year, Kushiro Port only moved more than [-] Ming people from Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province. one third.Then came the ensuing crises of food shortage, material shortage, and insufficient funds. The East Coast Japan Company seemed to be on the verge of life and death overnight.

At the critical moment, Shao Shu helped the company. He transferred the 20 silver dollars that the Blackwater Pioneering Team should pay within two years to the account of the Japanese company at one time, and at the same time recovered the original price of the East Coast Japanese company. The purchase of more than [-] immigrants from Qingzhou Prefecture ([-] yuan/person)—the Japanese company’s previous estimate was too optimistic, and now it is impossible to absorb such a large population—enables them to travel lightly.

In this way, the Japanese company revised the original huge plan, and began to bury its head in Kushiro Port in a down-to-earth manner.Shao Shude was also quite supportive of him, constantly selling some of the looted spoils that he could not use to Japanese companies, and at the same time vigorously purchasing coal, the company's only export commodity at that time. Coal purchases for civilian use in the water area are all transferred to Japanese companies on the east coast—of course, coal for ships still uses better-quality black water clean coal instead of inferior-quality Kushiro coal.

Under so many cares, the East Coast Japan Company, a colonial concern company, was able to breathe a sigh of relief in the harsh environment, and gradually gained a firm foothold in Ezo.After the second half of last year (1650), as Ningbo Prefecture was gradually integrated into the Heishui economic circle, the market capacity at the hands of people on the east bank has been greatly expanded, and the sales prospects of coal and high-quality timber produced by Kushiro Coal Mine are optimistic. , So it quickly attracted more soldiers with spare money to invest in the long-term bonds issued by the company.The well-funded Japanese companies suddenly trembled, and they started the second phase of immigration to Kushiro Port, preparing to enrich the local manpower to obtain greater benefits in the near future.

The "Baobab Tree" docked outside Jeju Port on February 2 along with the strong northeasterly wind.At this time, several steam engine sailboats that had completed maintenance had just shipped 6 Korean men and women and 1500 Ming people on the island, and were about to leave for Australia immediately.In winter, Jeju Island is an important departure base for immigrants. Immigrants from Shandong will basically be temporarily transferred here before the Liaohai Sea is frozen, and immigrants from Dabo County in Sakhalin Island will be temporarily transferred to Rishiri before the port is frozen. It's like waiting to board a ship at Yuanbo Port on the island.

More than 4000 officers and soldiers of the newly-built First Division of the Army based on Jeju Island are still preparing for battle in Dengzhou, but there is no sign of desertion on the streets of Jeju Prefecture: the relatives of the officers and soldiers of the First Division, the families of craftsmen in the weapon workshop outside the city, and Farmers and herdsmen from ten miles and eight townships crowded the small urban area to the brim.

There are many vendors on the street, which shows the prosperity of this paradise-like island that has not heard of war for many years. With the continuous immigration activities of people on the east coast for many years (sell part of the Koreans on the island to the Netherlands to develop Nanyang, and some emigrate to the east coast At the same time, a large number of weapon craftsmen, craftsmen, doctors and some low-level scholars of the Ming Dynasty were moved to the island, almost changing the races on the island. Now you only need to stand in the most prosperous "navigation" in Jeju City "Avenue" to take a look, what can be heard are often various Chinese dialects, and Korean is less and less heard. Even the few Koreans left on the island, for various reasons, they are now more willing to Use Chinese to communicate.

The most eye-catching lot on Hanghai Avenue is now occupied by the Sun family with a deep background.On this relatively closed island, they now directly put up the signboard of "Sun Chunyang Nanhuo Shop", instead of the deceitful "Sun Ji Nanhuohuo".This store, which is determined to be a "branded supermarket chain giant" (Wei Boqiuyu), has a very deep background and strong financial strength. So far, it has opened three stores in Yantai, Dengzhou and Jeju, and the income is not bad. At least It is not easy to make more or less profits without losing money.

Now the Sun family is ambitious and plans to use the last part of their idle funds, together with investment from other shareholders of the Heishui Pioneering Team, to open a store in Dabo County and Heishui County respectively, specializing in the acquisition of local prices. Cheap and high-quality seafood, furs and medicinal materials are then trafficked back to the south for sale.

There are tens of thousands of residents in the four towns and townships of Dabo County. There are so many specialties such as mountain products, sea vegetables, crabs, saury, Far Eastern sardines, sea bream, and squid. It is a good business to manage well; Heishui County——1651 It was newly established at the end of October 10, under its jurisdiction Heishui Township (including coal mines, logging camps, and quarries, with a total of more than [-] residents), Duer Township (later Duer Township), Xinmintun Township (later Mugeqi Township) City) and Heixiongling Township (the later town of Huoye) - with a total population of more than [-] people, producing mink fur, red fox fur, green fox fur, velvet antler, bear bile, and herbs , salmon, coal, and high-quality wood, and it is also a shipbuilding base, a building material production base, the first stronghold of the Huangyi Army in the Northeast Sea of ​​Daming, "Qiandi", "Longxing Land" "The political significance and economic value cannot be underestimated, so it is natural to set up a store here.

In a sense, the Heishui-Jinghai region, with Heishui County and Dabo County as the leader, is the foundation of the East Coast people in the Far East, rather than the front line, which may have a fierce dispute with the Central Plains Dynasty at any time places like Shandong and Zhejiang.Only by vigorously developing these places and continuously immigrating to enrich the household registration, over time, these places will surely become a solid backing for people from the east coast to gain a foothold in the Far East—in a sense, the most reliable and only backing.

After unloading a large amount of honeycomb briquettes, wood (Jeju Island lacks wood), clean coal, and salted fish (salted saury), the flute-shaped ship "Baobab Tree" loaded a lot of livestock (transported back to Kushiro Port for stocking) , intending to stop by Busan Port, and then return to Kushiro Port after shipping a batch of rice.

And just when they were about to leave, some interesting news came from the port of Busan in the north, and quickly spread on the small streets and docks in Jeju Prefecture.The content of the news is very shocking, but it also makes people feel a little worried. It turns out that the North Korean Kingdom was invited by the Qing Dynasty a while ago and secretly sent nearly a thousand troops (half of them were musketeers equipped with shotguns) to the place. The Amur River Basin seems to be planning to go to war with the Great East Bank.

Although this news has not been confirmed by the official, everyone seems to believe that it is true. At present, the atmosphere in Busan County is delicate. The North Korean county magistrate Kim Hong-beom has closed the door to thank guests all day long, and he does not know what he is doing; the East Bank is stationed there. Jin Wugui, the highest official of the Communist Party of China, is frequently calling subordinate officials for meetings, and the atmosphere is extremely tense.Going forward according to the current trend, it is impossible to say that something will happen next.

(End of this chapter)