Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1105 Library page ([-])

On September 1656, 9, after tossing around Picheng Port, Liang Xiangjian took the former Wei Boqiu's ship "Sakhalin Eagle" to the northernmost town of Oha on the island, and anchored off the coast of the island. He went ashore in a small boat and started the last leg of his inspection trip.

If we draw a straight line eastward from Dongjiao Township (Lazarev Port) in Jiangdong County, then this straight line is almost a landform dividing line on the island.From here to the north, it is almost all plains, but unfortunately the tundra area is very vast, and it can be said that it becomes more desolate and barren as it goes north. Except for some undulating and very low hills, there are rivers everywhere. plain.

On the red-brown swampy plain, crooked coniferous forests are everywhere. The trunks of larch trees are less than a meter long, and the crowns are pressed to the ground like green pillows. middle.Like most tundras, the forests here are home to a variety of very sour or bitter berries such as cranberries, lingonberries, black currants, and rubus.

In this small piece of land (about a quarter of the whole island), on the coast of this seemingly eternally icy sea, the harsh and barren natural environment makes even the natives seldom seen, Nature seems to say goodbye to human beings here with a smile...

"No matter how harsh nature is, the residents of Aoha Township, Liangjiagang Township (Moscalivo, named after Liang Xiangjian built a summer palace here) and Antler Township (near Nogliki) The quality of life is still better than that of the people in the south. The reason is also very simple, but the per capita wealth is more because of the sparse population. Farming is not a compulsory course for residents. On the contrary, fishing, whaling and seal hunting It is everyone’s biggest source of income. Of course, many local Yakuts or Kiryaks are hunters, and the fox fur, mink fur and bear fur they hunt in the mountains are also in short supply, and the sales market in the south is very popular. What's more, this is the only way to go to Temple Street in winter. When the ice sled departs from Heishui Port, it usually needs to be replenished and rested in Liangjia Port, which has brought a lot of wealth to the local area." Bogdan, the former director of the Heishui Public Security Bureau and the current mayor of Aoha Town, introduced Liang Xiangjian.

Bogdan can be regarded as the veteran of the three dynasties in the Heishui area. He has gone through the three eras of Mo Ming, Shao Shude and Chang Kaisheng. He has married a Ming wife and settled down in Sakhalin Island.This time, Liang Xiangjian promoted him to the mayor of Oha Town (in the future, he may be directly promoted to the county magistrate of Oha County), which is also a matter of course for Bogdan. A town mayor, and when the county is established in the future, he will be promoted to the county magistrate, which is what the title should mean.

Don’t look down on Oja, a place that seems to be a bit of a cold place where no birds shit. The coming whales have brought huge benefits to the residents, making them almost completely abandon agricultural planting and turn to fishing and hunting for a living, and they still live quite well.

Of course, it would not be accurate to say that there is no farming at all here.Although the climate is harsh here, and the time of year is not even warm enough for oats or barley to fully ripen—only three of the last ten years have experienced extended periods of warm weather for barley to ripen—the land It is quite good to be able to grow potatoes and be able to guarantee at least one crop.

Therefore, you can hear the word potato in every household here, and it is almost the only crop that can grow in large quantities and get a good harvest here.The places where the residents have reclaimed have avoided those difficult swamp areas. The surface layer of these newly created lands is a humus layer (formed by a large number of decaying weeds and leaves), and the bedrock is gravel.The gravel layer will heat up rapidly in hot weather to absorb the water in the surface soil, and in the rainy season, the rainfall is blocked by the gravel layer and cannot infiltrate (because the gravel is covered on the clay), and the root system of the plant is easy to rot, so only Crops with a well-developed and deeply rooted root system can grow here - provided the growing season is short.So you can see that the most cultivated crops here are vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage, burdock, and radishes. Occasionally, some barley or oats are planted, but not every year.

"Your agriculture here is doing decently. It's much better than what I saw in Picheng Port. It's just messing around there. The chief officer is irresponsible and incompetent." Liang Xiangjian has already gone to Oja at this time. I walked around the surrounding villages. The number of villages is small and the population is not large (in fact, there are only more than 800 residents in the whole town of Oha at this time). The Yaks and Yakuts are the main people, and the two sides get along fairly well. Although it is not unusually harmonious, there are no major conflicts, and this also shows Bogdan's governance skills.

"Last year, more than 500 Tierra del Fuego people (multiple Tierra del Fuego peoples including the Ona people, collectively referred to as Fuego people) were sent from the mainland, and they are currently undergoing training on the island. According to the plan, it will be completed by the end of this month. When you arrive at Liangjia Port by boat, you will also allocate some manpower to Oha at that time. Lujiao Township will not be used. There will be 800 Araucan people there to supplement. After adding more than 2700 people, the population of your Oha County will be almost [-] There are a lot of people—well, it sounds like a little less, but don’t worry, there are many Kiryaks, Yakuts, Oroqens in the mountains, you have to fight more, and then count them together People, brought them into our formal control, so the population will increase.” Liang Xiangjian was probably satisfied with Bogdan, so he made a few more points, of course, this is also the consistent policy of the East Coast people— These birth girls really lived on fishing and hunting. They are simple in nature and brave and hard to fight. They are the best source of recruits. Once they are all naturalized, they will be a great help to the people of the east coast in the future.

And it is said that after adding these exiled South American natives, the total number of people in the four counties on the books of the Blackwater Pioneering Team (Oha and Picheng counties will be established soon) has reached 32362, of which Heishui County (jurisdiction over four townships) counts 11332 people, 9340 people in Dabo County (jurisdiction over four townships), 5935 people in Picheng County (jurisdiction over three townships), and 2739 people in Oha County (jurisdiction over three townships). There is also an independent Nankuye Reclamation Bureau jurisdiction A total of 3016 people—the above are all registered population, excluding immigrants waiting to be transported in state-run farms and logging camps.

These four counties, together with Temple Street in the lower reaches of the Amur River, and the two counties of Jiangdong, have a fairly large population in the area under the jurisdiction of the Blackwater Pioneering Team, and the output of coal, building materials, timber, leather, medicinal materials, oil, meat, fish, and even gold They are all quite impressive, and they also have basic machining and shipbuilding capabilities. The people are simple and martial, and they are no longer a force that can be insulted.I believe that if we use this as a backing to start colonial competition with Russia and the Manchus in the future, we will definitely get twice the result with half the effort. If the mainland is willing to support more technology or talents, I am afraid that the future situation will be even bigger.

"By the way, Standing Committee member Liang, an armed merchant ship of the Dutch ran aground in the sea off Lujiao Township due to avoiding huge waves at the beginning of this month. They sent people off the boat to ask us to buy food, and later asked to start trading. Lujiao Township told me They sold some vegetables, potatoes and goats to the Dutch. Later, the Dutch found out that they were tanning sable, green fox and bear skins, so they made a trade request. The local deputy head who was in charge of the work did not dare to agree. The Dutch left in disappointment. But I guess they will come again, because they seem to like these high-quality leathers very much." Bogdan said as if he suddenly remembered.

"These Dutch guys are really like flies, why are they everywhere!" Liang Xiangjian snorted dissatisfiedly, and said: "I have already agreed with them to only open the two ports of Heishui and Dabo for trade. People are still jumping around, is it possible that they are still obsessed with the legendary land of Yesuo and want to colonize it? Hmph, with me, Lao Liang, how can I make you happy? Remember next time, if the Dutch appear in your place again Within the scope of Oha County, report immediately, and don’t do any trade with them. If you don’t listen to the advice, you can bombard them with cannons. It’s not realistic to allow them to come and go anywhere at will.”

The trade relationship between the Dutch East India Company and the Blackwater Pioneering Team is actually quite close. The raw silk and tea exported from Ningbo Dinghai Port, a small number of "North Korean farmers" exported from Busan Port (of course "voluntary"), and the exports from Sakhalin Island The high-quality leather and building materials of the Netherlands are very popular commodities of the Dutch; and the rice, a small amount of spices, dried fruits, tropical logs, sulfur, lead-tin ore and other commodities shipped by the Netherlands from the East Indies are also the products of the Blackwater Pioneering Team. Both parties get what they need urgently. They do trade once or twice a year. The business scale has climbed to 60 million yuan year by year, and the profit margin is extremely high. There is also a lot of room for growth in the future, and they have gradually become each other. cannot be ignored as a trading partner.

However, although the Netherlands has become an important trading partner for people on the east coast in the Far East, it does not mean that Dutch ships can run around, especially the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, which is a restricted area designated by Liang Xiangjian, and the Dutch are absolutely not allowed to enter at will. (except Dabo Port).

"It seems that it is necessary to report to Commander Chang after I go back and ask the navy to go around the Thousand Islands recently. Although I can't really attack the Dutch, it is always good to warn. Of course, these are trivial matters, now The main energy still has to be put on the Ming country, that is the focus..." Liang Xiangjian thought.

(End of this chapter)