Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 363 Fishing Season

Today's Jinshan Port has taken shape after a year and a half of development.Of course, this initial appearance is also compared with the original, and naturally it cannot be compared with those towns in China.The small brick kilns in the city have just been erected, and there is no rush to burn bricks—in fact, the main reason is the lack of enough manpower to make bricks.Therefore, almost all buildings in the city are made of wood, and there are even some adobe buildings. In short, everything looks very different from the local red brick and blue tile buildings.

The more than 200 acres of potatoes outside the city have been harvested twice, but it is a pity that the soil fertility here is not good, and it is the first year of barren land. Even if we have taken many measures, such as covering the river with mud In the field, for example, a layer of plant ash was sprinkled on the field, but the yield was still not high after all.Therefore, the total grain stored in the city is less than [-] tons at present, and the [-] tons of wheat left over from the last time I passed by was added to this amount, or it would be less.

It is impossible to farm in winter now, and even if potatoes with a short growth period are planted after the beginning of spring, it will take mid-to-late December at the earliest to harvest a crop. It is really a bit tight to maintain these two hundred tons of grain until then.It seems that we still have to go to Gushan Port to coordinate a batch of grain. There is a larger area of ​​cultivated land, and a batch of grain is also shipped from the mainland. The situation is much more abundant than here, and a little support is no problem.

"The six flute-shaped ships built locally should have already entered service. It is said that two will join the voyage between Xinhua Port and Gushan Port. In that case, there will be four transport ships participating here. The immigration transportation has started, and it can transport nearly 2000 people at a time." An Chu stood on the pier and chatted with Li Yi.

"It's a good idea. The local transportation tasks are also quite busy. I'm sure that only one ship will be transferred here to participate in the immigration transportation." Li Yi patted the back of Anchu's head and said, "Okay, you will bring them here in the future." Let's go around between these two points with the 'Breaking Wave', transporting people and goods back and forth, and I'm going back to Heishui Port."

"I understand." An Chu said indifferently, "Don't you just let me play single player here alone, it's fine."

……

July 1643, 7, Blackwater Port.Just when Li Yi's "Chopper" was repaired and maintained, and embarked on a dangerous journey back, the Heishui Port of Sakhalin Island, which is in the best season of the year, is also ushering in a grand event.

In the wide Heishui River, a row of wooden fence walls made of poplar are erected in the deep water in the center of the river. There is an opening in the middle of the fence wall, and two other fence walls that are funnel-shaped and gradually tightened on both sides of the opening.Finally, a layer of fishing nets was hung over the openings of the two gradually tightening fence walls.With the arrival of the annual salmon migration fishing season, how could people on the east coast miss this opportunity to increase their food reserves, which is almost the same as lying at home and picking up fish to eat?

Last year's fishing season was missed because everyone was unprepared, and could only watch those fat salmon slip away.But this year is different. Since the first batch of migratory fish was discovered in early July, Staff Sergeant Johnson quickly reported to Mo Ming who was far away in Yantai, and at the same time began to erect fences in the river.Mo Ming also attaches great importance to this matter. Since Heishui Port and its surrounding areas are really not suitable for large-scale reclamation and farming, he focused on the rich fishery resources here.

Before the departure, the native gave him a document, which recorded some information about the salmon fishing season.It's a pity that there are only a few pens, which are not comprehensive. After arriving at Heishui Port, he tried to communicate with the local aborigines, and finally got some information about the most famous fish here.

The scientific name of salmon is salmon, also known as salmon. It is a rare cold-water migratory fish distributed in the Pacific Ocean within the range of 35 degrees to 70 degrees north latitude and 110 degrees to 140 degrees east longitude.Among them, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the coast of Sakhalin Island and the waters of the Kuril Islands are its key production areas.The fish has delicious meat and high nutritional value. Every summer and autumn, schools of salmon that grow in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk begin to migrate collectively to freshwater rivers on the shore to lay eggs, forming a fishing season.

This kind of fish is huge in size, generally weighing seven or eight catties, and the big ones are twenty or thirty catties.They are born in rivers, grow up and enter the sea to live. After 3-5 years of sexual maturity, they return to the place of birth to lay eggs.The whole process is extremely spectacular. The migratory salmon do not eat or drink, and go upstream in order to return to their birthplace to reproduce.The whole journey is extremely dangerous, with numerous shoals and waterfalls.Whenever encountering such a situation, the salmon always exerts all its strength and sneaks with difficulty.In many shallow places, they move sideways or even rub against the gravel at the bottom of the water step by step; and whenever they encounter a waterfall or a broken stream, they will even jump up and jump over this dangerous place.Along the way, predators such as foxes, brown bears, and eagles even guarded the shallow water, and regarded the migrating salmon schools as their annual feast.

Many salmon died halfway due to physical exhaustion, human fishing, animal predation and other reasons, and only about 20% of the salmon finally arrived at the spawning ground covered in bruises.And when they finish laying eggs, the big fish will run out of nutrients and die (at this time they also lose their food value), and their leftover corpses will also become one of the food sources for the small fish after birth, for these growing fish Small fish eat and return safely to the sea.

The whole process of salmon migration is extremely difficult and spectacular, and their instinct to return to their roots and reproduce is even more moving.However, people are moved but they still have to catch the fish that should be caught, and they have to live.

There are generally two migration routes for salmon. One is from the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to Heilongjiang and Ussuri River; North Korea is partly connected to the sea and rivers.Of course, there are also a considerable number of salmon (mainly humpback salmon) that will enter some inland freshwater rivers and lakes on Sakhalin Island and the Thousand Islands to spawn.At this time of year, the famous salmon fishing season will be formed.

According to some records in history, someone once described the density of large groups of migratory salmon in rivers so high that it can almost make people walk on. Of course, this is an exaggerated literary and lyrical technique.However, during the fishing season in Heilongjiang, the density of fish schools was once so high that the oars could not be broken, which shows that there are a large number of migratory salmon.

There are more than 6000 rivers on Sakhalin Island, a considerable number of which have salmon migrating to spawn.The more famous production areas in the nearby area include the Polonai River and some freshwater rivers on the South Thousand Islands, which are the main production areas for humpback salmon.During the Soviet period, the Russians caught more than [-] tons of humpback salmon in the rivers on Sakhalin Island every year; and in the freshwater rivers on Iturup Island, even in low-yield years, they could catch [-] tons Above, the output is so high that it is staggering!

Although the Blackwater River is only a medium-sized river on Sakhalin Island, thousands of humpback salmon still come in every year during the fishing season.These fish began to appear one after another in June. At the end of July and the beginning of August, the number began to increase explosively, and it continued until the end of the month before declining. In the first ten days of September, you can see the last group of migratory fish. , the entire fishing period lasts more than a month.

The fishing nets of the people on the east coast were set up more than a week ago, and they were not greedy, they just hung a net in the center of the river where the fish are most dense.At the very beginning, they harvested fishing nets every two or three days. There were about a hundred fish in each net, all of which were fat adult fish, with an average weight of about ten catties.In the past two days, they have collected fishing nets almost every day, and the number of each net has also increased significantly, reaching six to seven hundred.Staff Sergeant Johnson estimates that according to the current trend, the number of fish caught per net may rise linearly in the future, and the frequency of replacing fishing nets will gradually increase.

Hundreds of North Korean women and children lined up on the shore, under the guidance of several technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture, killed the fish on the spot, and then salted the fish with white salt.Even, a considerable part of the fish will be made into smoked fish.This kind of marinated or smoked salmon can be stored for a long time, and the climate here is relatively cold, so if it is stored as a food reserve, it can be enough for the residents of the city to eat for a long time.

It's a pity that I forgot to dig a large cellar in the city last year, and then I can dig ice cubes and store them in the cellar in winter.As long as the insulation measures are taken well, this is a pretty good refrigerator.As long as there is this cold storage, the large amount of salmon caught will not need to be marinated as quickly as it is now, but can be directly put into the cold storage for storage.

Pity!Sergeant Johnson shook his head.No matter what this year, we will dig up this cold storage, and then take advantage of the cold winter to go to the Heishui River to dig ice cubes, and then stuff them into the cold storage.The aborigines on the island raised a large number of reindeer and cattle, and every winter a huge number of them would die due to aging, lack of forage and other reasons.At this time, people on the east coast can buy these livestock from them at a very low price, and then slaughter them themselves. The slaughtered meat can be stored in cold storage, and the skin can be transported back to the mainland for sale after simple processing.You can even buy moose from these indigenous hunters. The wild moose herd on the island is very large, the meat can be eaten, and the skin can be transported back to the mainland, which is very cost-effective.

And while everyone was happily catching salmon on the shore, the five boats currently moored in the harbor (including the small North Korean fishing boat) also started to move.In addition to the two transport ships that will transport supplies to Rishiri Island and Yantai Fortress, the North Korean fishing boat will be driven by sailors to trade with the Shandan people near Dabo and recruit soldiers. The expedition ships "Bo" and "Crossing the Sea" will be temporarily transferred to fishing boats to go to sea.

(End of this chapter)