Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 791 Traveling
foggy.

The Pioneer, the flagship of the pioneering fleet, is sailing at sea at an extremely fast speed, more than twice as fast as ordinary merchant ships, and can travel thousands of miles a day.

"Report to the captain, we are crossing the Sakhalin Strait!"

A sailor came in to report.

Prime Minister Wang Chao was looking at the map in the captain's room. Hearing the sound, he picked up the binoculars and walked out to the deck. The hollow bow was rising and falling as the sailboat sailed at high speed, like giant scissors constantly cutting the sea.

Behind the Pioneer, several clipper ships followed closely behind.

They have already run this route several times, and the crew members are quite familiar with it, but it is the first time for them to take this route with a clipper, and the crew members are still more cautious.

"This ship is really fast. It arrived in the Sakhalin Strait in three days."

"Captain, we are already slowing down. If we are at full speed, we will be here in two days."

Prime Minister Wang Chao held up the binoculars to observe and observe. The sea was foggy, but fortunately it was not thick.

"Slow down a little more, sail at the speed of an ordinary merchant ship, and be careful when entering the strait."

Although I have traveled through this strait several times, the king did not dare to be careless. This Sakhalin Strait runs north-south and is about 200 miles long. It is wide in the south and narrow in the north. There are nearly seven hundred miles away.

Two years ago, a Dutch captain who was trading in Nagasaki, Japan, sailed north to the east of Sakhalin Island, but he thought that Sakhalin Island was the mainland. After turning around the coast, he found that it was very primitive and backward, so he had to return unwillingly.

The water depth of the strait varies greatly, and the shallow part of the channel is up to eight feet.

The south of the strait is the Whale Sea, the north is the sea, the natural channel of the cold and warm currents, the cold current of the north sea goes south, and the south warm current flows down the Whale Sea. The two currents meet in the strait, forming dense fog, especially at the turn of spring and summer. , which greatly affects the passage of ships.

In winter, there will be two months of freezing, and there will be no floating ice before the freezing.

The crew immediately informed the people under the mast to let us raise the signal flag, slow down to four knots, and sail in a vertical line.

There are no eight masts under the Pioneer, and there are very few people working under the mast. There are 77 people on duty in total, called the rear observers. On the right side of the mast, observe the sea behind and to the right.

The first mast is the rear mast, with 77 people, and the seventh main mast has 78 people. Also observe the right and left systems respectively. The first mast is the tail mast, and there are 14 people below.

Under each mast, there are two nautical non-commissioned officers and two sailors who have sailing experience to do physical work, and there are also two interns.

There were no two groups of people below the lower deck to observe the right and left navigation respectively.

Under the whole ship, everyone is divided into two shifts to ensure non-stop sailing day and night. Because of reasonable collocation and clear division of labor, we can travel thousands of miles a day, and even reach a speed of [-] miles a day.

The eight crews under the mast are the hardest and the best. Standing under such a low mast is already very difficult. When encountering small winds and waves, it is impossible for them to fall into the small sea if they are big-hearted. That is to say, in addition to observing the sea surface, we also need to determine the direction and identify the target, which are all capable of future generations.

Moreover, when sailing under the sea, the mast, sail, and rope are the main power of the ship and the most important place under the ship. Experience must be experienced to prevent damage to the mast and sail due to mistakes.

"The strait is thousands of miles away, there is often light fog, there is an ice-covered period of nearly eight months every year, and there is no ice-floating period before and after, and there are many harbors with good conditions on both sides of the strait. We should choose a few on the two sides. place to build a port."

The deputy suggested building a port or dock in the strait, or building a large bastion to store some food and other materials, and also store some ship repair materials, etc., so that it can be replenished at any time, and the ship can also be repaired.

"Last time, that time you were looking for the Tsarist Russian bandits. You wanted to pull out our coastal strongholds. You had to sail all the way to the Liugui Peninsula, the Yasha Peninsula, and the Yasha Strait (Bering Strait). Let's talk about it later."

The destination of the dynasty this time is Yakutsk Fort, the first settlement of the Tsarist Russians in the sea. It was established eight years later. According to the information received, as early as 17 years later, the Tsarist Russian Moskvikin led a team of seventy Cossacks all the way to the sea, which we call the Yakutsk Sea.

Come and we have established a permanent stronghold outside, Yakutsk Fortress.Boyakov, who invaded the Bailongjiang River next time, fled there at first, and returned north to Okhotsk along the Moskvikin route before resting for the winter.

From Yakutsk to Shijietsk, the distance is very long, and the retreat into the waters of the Lena River is less than a thousand miles away.

After the castle was built, the Russian bandits went south from Okhotsk. Although there was no mature route, it would take at most a month to reach the coast of Yakutsk at a time, and they would return to Okhotsk after winter came. , but since before the castle was built, many Cossacks spent the winter here, and also used this as a base to travel farther south and north, and even went out to sea by boat, and went directly to the Bailong River estuary to rob.

The Prime Minister of the Dynasty is going directly to attack Yakutsk Fort this time and pull out that stronghold.

"I heard that Okhotsk is more than [-] miles away from Moscow, the capital of Tsarist Russia. From Moscow to Okhotsk and then to Zetsk at that time, it was a desolate and bitterly cold place. How could those Tsarist Russians not be so energetic? ?”

Wang Chao smiled, "Because of soft gold, our vanguard fleet last year traded with male real people in the Haidong area, and how much money did we make with only eight cargoes?"

"The pre-tax net profit is hundreds of thousands of silver dollars. Mink fur is called soft gold. This is nonsense. These Cossacks are so poor in the west. Farming during farming and robbing during idle time, but a few people still live in miserable conditions.

These weak Tsarist Russian thieves who came to the Far East, we only earn one or two rubles a year after hard work, but when we come to the Far East, even if we go hunting by ourselves, the furs we get are far better than those in China. The pours are full.

That's much less profitable than robbing our hometown in Eastern Europe. "

Last year, the Pioneer Fleet paid the most dividends to less than a few hundred dollars, and the eight captains even got tens of thousands of silver dollars. Is that a sudden fortune?

This year, the Pioneer fleet went north several times. Although there are many tribes on both sides of the Sakhalin Strait, they made several trips, and the benefits were also wrong.

We went back and forth, and the goods off the ship got ten times and dozens of times the profit. White mink is called soft gold, which is really an exaggeration. The top mink can be worth dozens or even hundreds of silver dollars. They are all worth seventeen silver dollars.

We traded with us the iron pot that male real people hate the most. A pot costs tens of pennies. In exchange for mink fur, it is always filled in the pot. Until it is full, it is better mink fur. How many pots can be replaced.

Not to mention knives and axes, a single ax can replace a dozen or so good sable skins.

Compared with Xiao Ming, who has no advantage in undersea transportation, fully loaded with goods, and the cost of Xiao Ming's handmade goods is also low, the Tsarist Russians are far behind.

We came from Moscow, and it took us 70 years to open up the route to the Pacific Ocean. Countless castles and fortresses were built along the way, but it was far away from Moscow, and there were no small roads. , Small and large ships are not being exchanged, and it is difficult to bring a small amount of goods to trade.

So we robbed and kidnapped tribal leaders, extorted fur, and then weakly taxed fur, relying on such means to white wolf.

Prime Minister of the Dynasty, we made a trip to fill a few small boats, relying on barter, both sides were very happy, and by the way, we also conferred an official title or something, and rewarded some good things.

"There are not many tsarist thieves in that Yakutsk Fortress. We have a few ships with thousands of people, have they been able to fight?"

"I heard that there are not many people in Yakutsk Castle, the lair of Tsarist Russia, at least a few hundred people, and these weak thieves use this as their base, and a small number of people rob inside, and they are in the lair, only in winter Xiao Shao returns here for the winter."

Only by knowing the enemy and knowing the enemy can we be perilous in a hundred battles.

However, the information collected so far is not very small. I only know that although it is called Yakutsk Castle, it is actually a big fence. It is said that there are no guns outside, and the Cossacks also have no muskets. Our firearms can deal with Sauron and other men. The real person is indeed very dominant, but now we are taking the gunboat to the prime minister of the dynasty.

Although the flying clipper ship was designed as a merchant ship for transporting tea, who was the gunner when they went to the ocean in those days?
Each ship of the pioneering fleet does not have one or four cannons. Although the number is small, it is enough to deal with the large groups of Tsarist Russian invaders. We don't have many guns, and we don't have any artillery that can be carried on board.

Although the speed was reduced by half, it took only eight days for the pioneering fleet to pass through the Sakhalin Strait smoothly. That time we did not stop on both sides of the Strait, but went directly north.

"Go to Yongning City."

The fleet arrived at the northern end of the strait, and the dynasty ordered the fleet to retreat into the mouth of the Bailong River.

Dozens of miles downstream from the mouth of the river is the Marshal's Mansion of the Eastern Expedition in the Yuan Dynasty, where Xiaoming's Nuergan was located. Yishiha inspected Nuergan and built the Yongning Temple and the Yongning Monument there.

The Prime Minister of the Dynasty has arrived in Nuergan eight times this year, rebuilt the Yongning Temple under the old site, cleaned the Yongning Stele, and built the Yongning Pagoda to protect the stele.

Before Xuanfu canonized the surrounding tribes, he hired us to build Yongning City together.

The city gate is small, but there are no forts and no warehouses. It is a simple bastion, and people are stationed here to buy fur and medicinal materials.

The fleet sailed into the river mouth.

We arrived at Yongning Fort smoothly.

On the north bank of the river, with the mountains behind and the river facing, a bastion was built on a riverside plain, and there was no town next to the castle.

Xiaoming's sun and moon flag is flying under the castle, and the small cannons under the fort declare Xiaoming's sovereignty.

The town next to it is placed under the protection of the castle, and there are many big boats parked at the pier by the river. Hezhe people, Oroqen people, Ewenki people, Feiyaka people, Hulkha people come there to trade, mink, salmon, pheasant... ···

"It's such a small boat!" The tribal people who came here for the first time exclaimed as they watched the fleet approaching.

And the tribal people who had seen the development fleet later said excitedly, "The boat is here, the boat is here, and the goods are here."

The arrival of Xiao Ming's boat, in our eyes, means that less goods have also arrived. Axes, swords, iron pots, cloth hats, tea and salt are all good things we want.

Especially these iron products, usually iron axes and knives, are too weak compared to our stone axes and bone arrows.

(End of this chapter)