Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1372
"Where have you been the furthest?" Shao Shude asked curiously inside the Jiaotai Hall.

"Your Majesty, the sea conditions over there are harsh, and there is sometimes heavy fog, and you can't tell the direction. When the southeast wind blows, sometimes you get lost..." Captain Xu Xiong, who returned from sailing in the Sea of ​​Japan, replied: "Wait until the fog clears." Going, the yaw was very serious, and once it was very close to the land, it was luck that it didn't hit the rocks."

Shao Shude nodded.Where the cold and warm currents meet, it is easy to produce heavy fog.According to the route they sailed along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula, it should have encountered a tributary of the Thousand Island Cold Current and a tributary of the Japanese Warm Current.

Where this kind of cold and warm currents meet, the seawater moves violently, stirring up the nutrients on the seabed, so that various plankton have sufficient nutrients.With more plankton, fishery resources are naturally very rich.

"We landed on that land later..." Xu Xiong continued.

"Is it an island, a peninsula or a mainland?" Shao Shude interrupted and asked.

"Maybe it's a peninsula." Xu Xiong was silent for a moment before replying.

Shao Shude was noncommittal.

How dare you be so sure without thoroughly exploring and delineating the coastline?In history, the Russians thought that Sakhalin Island was a peninsula. It was not until 1848 that Nevelskoy made a careful investigation and finally confirmed that it was a large island.

At that time, there were a large number of Japanese colonists in the south of the island, and many temples were built, which were developed by the Hokkaido daimyo Matsumae.Japanese fishermen have been fishing there for decades, and even named Sakhalin Island "Karata Island"-they are very aware of its island nature.

It is the most cost-effective way to set up a temporary repair shop to help repair and dry fishing nets, process seafood, and then sort them into categories for shipment.

The old man was very cautious, lowered his head, and dared not even look at him.

"The opposite side of this island is Anbian and Anyuan in the Bohai Sea, right?" Shao Shude said, "What's the situation there? Have you ever inquired?"

"Your Majesty is wise." Xu Xiong praised: "This island may be frozen for several months a year. It is really not suitable to keep people in winter. But there are really many fish. There are also a lot of seals. I have seen whales more than once. If only As a summer fishing spot, it's fantastic."

"This fish is huge. I brought several buckets back. I have never seen such a thing in the coastal waters of the Central Plains. Standing on a hill, overlooking the sea, the sea is full of dense schools of fish, scrambling to rush into the river on the island. Broke all our nets."

"The minister also hunted a bear."

After docking, I didn't see a single person. I thought it was a deserted island, so I started fishing.It's amazing to say that they didn't hang anything on the hooks at all, they went naked, and then caught a lot of squid one by one, which saved their lives at the critical moment.

The purity of gold is very low, in fact, it is dog head gold.

Pugu Cheng'en gestured, and the two little Huangmen brought a few pieces of gold on a tray.

One more thing, the Manchu Qing Dynasty sent [-] soldiers to the large island of Sakhalin in birch skin boats and animal skin boats to land on the island only once in the Later Jin Dynasty, and they have never been there since then.Later, the Japanese colonized the southern part of the island, the Russians colonized the northern part, and even the Americans came to hunt seals, sea lions, and walruses. The Qing Dynasty knew nothing about it.

Before humans began to hunt and kill, there were no fewer whales in the Arctic than in the Antarctic.But who made the northern hemisphere the core of human civilization?Penguins were extinct in the middle of the 18th century, leaving only those in the southern hemisphere, not to mention whales?

"There are a lot of wild deer on the island, and they are not afraid of people at all. They are in groups, and their hooves are like thunder. A deer weighs more than a thousand catties."

More than [-]% of whales live in cold seas.

"There is also a warm current." Shao Shude added: "So the southern half of the island is warm, while the northern half is cold."

"You don't need to be polite, just sit down." Shao Shude waved his hand, got up and walked to the two of them, and looked at them.

It can be said that sailing along the coastline does not require much navigation skills, much lower than the requirements of deep sea navigation.It sounds like a simple task, but their subjective initiative is very strong, and their spirit of exploration is also very strong. Whether they are forced or active, they have gone ashore many times, and they have bravely contacted the natives and obtained valuable first-hand knowledge material.

In fact, they have had a lot of experience in Beihang this time.

Xu Xiong was a little dazed.

The squid, on the other hand, suffered from bleeding. They were pulled up by the fishhook without eating anything, and then dried and hung on the deck, becoming the survival of the sailors.

"Seals, sea lions, walruses, fur seals, beavers..." Shao Shude lightly touched the table with his index finger, thinking silently.

"It's either Fei Yaka or Oroqen." Shao Shude looked at the two natives, asked them to reward them with some property, and then sat back on the dragon chair.

Xu Xiong hesitated for a moment, and said: "Your Majesty, since there is a cold current on this island, the winter may not be very warm."

"I once sent people ashore, but within three days, the people from Bohai discovered them. The thieves gathered hundreds of horses and searched the mountains to round them up. I had no choice but to retreat to the boat." Xu Xiong replied.

He had no idea who this was.It seems that there is no such tribe in Liaodong.Perhaps, only a god-given god like a sage would know.

The young man was still somewhat wild, with his eyes wide open, looking at Shao Shude curiously.

Shao Shude understood very well that after experiencing the rain, snow and wind and frost in society, the edges and corners of people have been smoothed out, even for "savages".

"I met them while fishing at the seaside." Xu Xiong said, "I thought the saint might be interested, so I invited them back."

"Xu Qing, if my expectations are correct, this is a big island." Shao Shude said: "In your opinion, what is the value of this island?"

Soon some palace people invited the natives.

The reason why it was once thought to be a peninsula is because the northern end of the island is really close to the mainland, the narrowest point is only a few kilometers, and the water in this place called the Tatar Strait is very shallow, and it may have been connected to the mainland in ancient times. .

Shao Shude nodded again.

There are thousands of rivers on Sakhalin Island, a considerable number of which have salmon migrating to spawn.A number of freshwater rivers in the nearby South Thousand Islands are also major producers of humpback salmon.

"In the former Tang Dynasty, the sea was called the sea. People in Bohai and Silla called it the Bohai Sea." Xu Xiong said: "I hired several guides in Baekje, and they all said that there were boats going to Silla in the time of Silla. But Tokyo and Nanjing in the Bohai Sea are closer, and more boats go there. The island is rich in fish, fur, gold and other things. A few natives came back..."

"Well." Shao Shude thought for a while, and then asked: "If you only build a town at the southern end of the island, and send people to garrison it in summer to help repair fishing nets and boats, and withdraw it when the fishing season is over, what do you think?"

"By the way, there are many seals by the sea, but unfortunately we haven't caught them yet."

In the later Soviet era, Maozi once wanted to fill this shallow strait to prevent the cold current from going south.Because according to their calculations, if this strait is blocked, the average annual temperature in the Far East will increase by 2-3 degrees, and the effect is very obvious.But in the end, it was not implemented. It may be that the cost is too high, or there are not many people in the Far East, so it is not worth it.

Whales in the northern hemisphere actually follow this pattern.It is not for nothing that Svalbard has become Europe's whaling mecca.

80% of the whales in later generations live in the Antarctic waters south of the westerly belt in the southern hemisphere. The local fishery resources are rich and can support a huge group of whales.When the southern hemisphere winter comes and the Antarctic is frozen, the whales will go north to enter relatively warm seas.

"Oh? There are natives?" Shao Shude was very interested, and immediately said, "Let them in."

It turned out that Xu Xiong and others had to abandon a lot of goods, including supplies, due to strong winds and waves, damaged ships and serious water leakage.

"Can they speak official language?" Shao Shude asked.

"No. I don't even understand Bohai Chinese very well." Xu Xiong replied.

"What's on the peninsula?" Shao Shude asked.

Xu Xiong even brought back some air-dried squids, Shao Shude gave them to the palace servants after looking at them.

Thinking of this, he bowed his head humbly.

It was only when it was ceded that it was discovered that the Japanese and Russians had divided the island for a long time.Tsarist Russia has exiled an unknown number of prisoners, built many colonies and towns, and even established a basic handicraft industry. They just came to make up a cession procedure, which is really slow enough.

"During the fishing season in July, I hurriedly found some nets, and within a few days, I caught thousands of big fish."

Xu Xiong eloquently said a lot, and Shao Shude became more sure that this is Sakhalin Island.

"After I conquer Bohai Sea, do I need to occupy this island?" Shao Shude asked.

Shao Shude sat on the dragon chair and watched carefully. There were two people who came in, an old man and a young man. They might be grandpa and grandson. They saluted nervously under the signal of the palace staff.

It may be the first time he has seen such a magnificent palace, and he is even more frightened, almost not knowing what to do.

Shao Shude curiously picked up a piece, looked carefully, and said, "The natives don't know how to mine and smelt, this gold must have been picked up. It's hard for them to know that this thing is useful, maybe they have contact with outsiders, could it be Bohai people? Or Japanese, Silla people?"

"Your Majesty, I waited for the landing to cut wood and repair the ship. I stayed there for more than a month. I only felt that there were many bears, deer, and fish on the island, and there were very few people." Xu Xiong replied.

"How did you meet them? Why are you willing to come to Daxia?" Shao Shude asked again.

During the Soviet period, the Russians caught more than [-] tons of humpback salmon in the rivers of Sakhalin Island every year.

"Yes." Xu Xiong said, "However, I don't recommend occupying this island. People from the Central Plains may not be used to the bitter cold weather."

"The local natives want to exchange gold for the hatchets we carry," Xu Xiong said.

But the premise of all this is that you conquer Bohai State, and then use its densely populated Xingkai Lake grain production area as the core to build shipyards in Lifu and Dingyuanfu in the east to support this kind of fishing activities—— The good news is that this is all offshore fishing, and you don't even need to go to sea, and you can catch a lot of fish in a year on the shore.

please?Could it be kidnapping?Shao Shude sneered secretly, and asked carefully for details.

If it is only used as a fishing and whaling base, there is actually no cost.

And in the Danshui River on Iturup Island, even in years with low yields, more than [-] tons can be caught, which is astonishingly high!

Eight thousand tons can be caught in the freshwater river in the interior of a small island. What is the concept?It is equivalent to the meat output of hundreds of thousands of sheep.

There is no doubt that this is a huge fortune.And you don't need to invest much money at all.Build some ice cells ahead of time, catch a summer's worth of fish, and call it a day.In late autumn, when the north wind picks up, the fish can be transported back to the country, sailing along the coastline without much advanced technology.

This kind of natural sea pasture is harvested once a year, isn't it fragrant?
"Xu Qing, you will sail again next year. This time, bring more boats and investigate more thoroughly." Shao Shude said.

(End of this chapter)