Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 282 North Kun State

In a blink of an eye, Song Jun had been in Kunzhou for three months. Song Jun had basically figured out the topographical features of Kunzhou. Kunzhou was square, with a width of thousands of miles from north to south and from east to west. In the middle was a volcanic mountain range surrounded by dense forests. cover.

The grasslands are mainly distributed in the north and east, especially the northeast grasslands. Although there are gentle hills in the middle, they are mainly grasslands, stretching for thousands of miles, more than [-] miles wide, rich in pastures, and can raise hundreds of thousands of war horses. match.

The grassland in the southeast is a little smaller, but it is also hundreds of miles long and wide. It can raise livestock such as cattle and sheep, and it is affected by the warm current, which makes it warmer, and the horses can move there for the winter.

The enemies on the island are gone, but the fierce beasts have become the biggest enemies of war horses. There are no fierce tigers in Kunzhou, but there are a group of wild wolves and countless brown bears, as well as foxes and a large number of elk and sika deer.

The only threat to the horses was a group of wild wolves. Hundreds of Song soldiers spent a month, led by Kun tribe hunters, eradicating all the wild wolves in Kunzhou Island.

The first batch of [-] mares and all stallions also moved from Songma Island to Kunzhou two months ago. They began to run on the boundless grassland. The Song Army built a large number of stables on the west side of the island. And set up a small tent, stationed [-] soldiers and horse officials.

In addition, the Song Army hired more than 100 young and strong Kun people on the condition of food, salt and cloth, and began to train them to ride and raise horses. It took only one month for these more than 100 Kun people to become horse breeders. An excellent assistant.

Since July, officials have hired hundreds of Kun men and women to help cut grass. At this time, the pasture is more abundant. The grass is dried and shipped to the southern end of the east coast, where the horses spend the winter. .

Although it is midsummer in July, the weather in Kunzhou is not hot and the climate is more suitable.

According to the plan, the Song Dynasty would take at least two years to operate Kunzhou, and it would only start marching towards Sakhalin Island after it gained a firm foothold in Kunzhou. However, the front of the Song Army still needed to explore Sakhalin Island and go to the island to survey the terrain.

This time, Fan Ning led the army to the north, and the three of them each had a division of labor. Di Qing led the army and craftsmen to build the first city in Kunnan Bay in the south, which was to be the seat of Kunnan County.

And Zhao Zongshi is in charge of arranging horse breeding, which is the most important thing. The main purpose of their occupation of Kunzhou is to raise horses. They started breeding two months ago, and their goal is to add [-] new horses next year. pony.

Fan Ning led a thousand troops to continue to explore the surrounding islands, destroy the hostile tribes, and subdue the gentle tribes. In addition to the dozen or so islands on the east and west sides of Kunzhou, they mainly explored the islands in the north, which later became the Thousand Islands.

Several of the relatively large islands, such as the four northern islands of Japan, etc., were inhabited by a small number of natives, but most of these natives were docile and kind. There are dozens of people, even more than a hundred people, all living on hunting and fishing.

This morning, after several days of sailing, the fleet of fifty large ships led by Fan Ning gradually arrived at the northern Sakhalin Island.

Along with him was an elder of the Kun clan. He was the oldest man in the Kun clan. He was about 50 years old. His name was Sapu, which means tree in the native language.

Sapp was originally the chief of the Northeast Tribe, while the chief of the Northwest Tribe was his eldest son. Now that the two tribes have merged again, he has become the elder of the tribe and is in charge of theocracy.

Sapp has lived on Sakhalin Island for 40 years. He led the tribe to move from Sakhalin Island to Kunzhou ten years ago. Once on the island, they were hit head-on by the Kunnan tribe. They suffered heavy casualties and were forced to surrender.

Three years ago, his three wives and several daughters were taken away by the Kunnan tribe. At the same time, they were forcibly divided into two tribes by the Peninsula tribe, making them weaker and unable to resist the bullying of the Kunnan tribe.

It was not until the Kunnan tribe that was wiped out by the Song army that the robbed wife and daughter returned to him.

From this point, Sapp is full of gratitude to Song Jun. After a few months of getting along, he can also speak more than 100 Chinese words. Although the pronunciation is not good, he can barely understand it.

Along the way, he told Fan Ning that there were very few Kun people in Sakhalin Island, just over a thousand people. Since their tribe moved south to Kunzhou ten years ago, there is only one tribe left on Sakhalin Island, about [-] people. People live by hunting and fishing.

Among the people who followed Fan Ning to investigate, in addition to Xu Qing, there was also Zhu Yuanfeng's eldest grandson Zhu Lin. According to Fan Ning's idea, it would be best to build an island, but Zhu Lin didn't find a satisfactory island after searching around. , he hopes to find an island that is rich in resources and can raise horses.

But one of the islands made him a little tempted. It is tens of miles wide and more than 200 miles long. The island also has a large grassland and a natural harbor. Sapp called it the Black Island. This island was actually the country among the four northern islands. back island.

Just because the area is a bit big, and I don't know whether the imperial court will award this island to his grandfather, Zhu Lin is full of worries.

Fan Ning understood his feelings, so he patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Those more than 100 stallions are very important to establish a ranch. The emperor knows very well that since he promised to give your grandfather land, it will not be too small. And it's not the land of Kunzhou, but an island, he should agree."

Zhu Lin nodded, "My grandfather wanted to raise thousands of horses. This was his dream since he was a child, and it is also my dream."

Fan Ning laughed, "This is actually the dream of every Song Dynasty person!"

"There!"

Sapp suddenly pointed to the looming land in the distance and shouted, "We've arrived!"

In fact, Sakhalin Island and Kunzhou are very close to each other, separated by the Zongya Strait, but Fan Ning and the others first explored the northern archipelago, and then turned around to Sakhalin Island, which took a few days.

Salin's pronunciation was weird, but everyone understood it, and everyone cheered.

Seeing that Ming Ren and Ming Li were the most excited, Fan Ning patted them on the head with a smile, "Why are you happy?"

The two brothers sighed: "It's not easy! After walking for a few days, we finally arrived."

Fan Ning smiled and said, "If I told you that the southernmost point of this big island is less than a hundred miles away from Kunzhou, would you still be so excited?"

The two brothers were stunned, "Is it so close?"

Fan Ning pointed to the guide, and asked Sapp with a smile, "Elder, is it very close?"

Sapp knew what he meant and said with a smile, "Very close!"

Akihito scratched his head and muttered, "If we had known it was so close, we would have come directly by canoe."

"You can go back in the canoe!"

Fan Ning laughed, and unfolded the map of Sakhalin Island he drew, which was drawn according to the memory of his later generations.

It is more than two thousand miles long, hundreds of miles wide in the north, and very narrow in the south, like a long pole, only more than twenty miles wide. The southernmost end is a harpoon-shaped bay.

Fanning pointed to the map and asked Sapp, "Elder, is there a place that doesn't freeze in winter?"

Sapp didn't understand what he meant, and Fan Ning smiled and said, "In winter, there is no ice in the water!"

After speaking twice, Sapp finally understood.

He quickly pointed to the southernmost bay and said, "Here!"

Fan Ning nodded, thinking to himself, there is indeed an ice-free port on Sakhalin Island, probably due to the influence of the tributaries of the Kuroshio Current, the southernmost bay does not freeze, so it is a good place to establish a military base.

Under the guidance of Sapp, the fleet docked directly in a bay. Everyone was immediately shocked by the endless grassland in the distance. Akihito stammered: "Is it possible to raise livestock here!"

Fan Ning smiled, ignored his surprise, and said to everyone, "Get off the boat and have a look!"

Fanning’s interest in Sakhalin Island is not for raising horses here. In fact, only the south of Sakhalin Island can be used. The winter in the north is too long, covered with ice and snow for half the year, and crops can only be planted from April to September.

The role of Sakhalin Island is its strategic value. Once the supply city is established here, once the time is right, Song and Liao will fight in Youzhou, and the fleet of the Great Song Navy will go westward along the Heishui or Tumen River, and can directly enter Khitan people lair.

The Liao Kingdom has a vast territory and governs hundreds of ethnic groups, but once its old nest is destroyed, its rule in various places is likely to fall apart.

The place where Fanning landed was the central part of Sakhalin Island. They stayed in this area for two days and met with the local tribal leaders under the guidance of Sapp. The natives here are also kind, simple and hospitable.

They specially brought out fresh bear meat and venison to entertain Fan Ning and his army, and the army brought out hundreds of jugs of fine wine. Everyone drank and ate meat around the bonfire. The girls danced in the light of the fire. Even though they could not speak the language, they got together Very happy.

In the light of the fire, Fan Ning whispered the word "Da Song" to Sapp, and pointed to the leader of the other tribe. Sapp immediately understood what Fan Ning meant, and hoped that the other party would also become a citizen of the Great Song. Of course, the conditions were the same. They You can live here for a long time, or you can move south to Kunzhou.

Sapp sat in front of the chief and drank and chatted with him, and slowly chatted with him about their migration to Maoren Island. When annihilating the local tribes and helping them regain their robbed wives and daughters, the leader's eyes were full of gratitude, and he raised his wine bowl to Fan Ning in respect.

Early the next morning, Fan Ning led the army to bid farewell and left. He presented the other party with a thousand pieces of cloth and a batch of daily necessities.

The fleet began to slowly turn around and head south, looking at the tall wooden houses in the distance, Sapp pointed to his head and smiled at Fan Ning: "Da Song, he, think about it!"

Fan Ning smiled and nodded. The other party should discuss with the whole clan before making a decision, but at least it shows that the leader himself is quite tempted.

In fact, this is a good thing for them. Being a citizen of the Great Song Dynasty will not affect their lives, nor will they change their beliefs and customs. Instead, they can get food and cloth, have enough food and clothing, and learn to farm and weave cloth. How can they live like this? reject?
(End of this chapter)