Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 364 Material Preparation

Of the two expedition ships turned fishing vessels, the "Duohai" will sail north to the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, and then use trawling nets to catch migratory salmon; while the "Fubo" will head to the waters near the Thousand Islands , on the one hand to detect the local sea area information, on the other hand - and more importantly, to detect the famous local saury fishing season information.

After a while, the extremely large number of saury in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk will begin to migrate southward. It is a good time to go fishing in the waters near Iturupo Island.If the expedition ships of the people on the east coast are equipped with some combined lamps using large condensers, they can carry out light trapping at night, and they can easily catch dozens of tons of saury in one night.However, the local Ainu fishermen do not know this fishing method. They will only drive a small boat day after day and year after year, and use their own inferior cast nets to catch inland rivers or offshore. For some pelagic fish, they don't even necessarily know what the fishing season is all about.

Therefore, science and technology are the primary productive forces. Guarding the Qiandao Fishing Ground (that is, the Hokkaido Fishing Ground), the largest fishing ground in the world, if coupled with advanced fishing technology, and scientific knowledge of fisheries and oceans, then this fishing ground will become The natural sea granary of the people on the east coast.Moreover, this granary seems to be endless: salmon, saury, far eastern sardine, mackerel and other high-yield fish are all enriched here; in addition to these, there are also a large number of crabs in the waters around Sakhalin Island Humans and molluscs are really an inexhaustible treasure house.

The situation in the Ming Dynasty in the south is deteriorating day by day. Next year, with the deepening of the war, the number of refugees will usher in a period of explosive growth. This also means that the number of refugees from the Ming Kingdom collected by the people on the east coast will be geometric. increase.Then, how to ensure the feeding of such a large number (possibly tens of thousands or even tens of thousands) of refugees will definitely become a sharp sword hanging over the heads of the people on the east coast.Roughly calculated, it is conservatively estimated that more than 4000 tons of food would be needed by refugees of this order of magnitude. If there are too many people, they may need an appalling amount of nearly [-] tons of food.

What is the concept of nearly 2 tons of grain?Today, the total annual output of all kinds of grain in the East Coast Republic of China is only more than 2 tons. This is still the grain output after the agricultural bases such as Xihubao and Dafengbao began to have stable output. If it was the previous two years, it might be every year The total grain output is just over [-] tons.The food needed to feed tens of thousands of refugees is huge. If there is a certain amount of redundancy, the people on the east coast must prepare at least [-] tons of food (with [-] people as the upper limit).

Where did the [-] tons of food come from?You know, Australia can't count on this matter in a short time. There is too much to take care of there, and it is difficult to have surplus food to support the north for the time being.It is even more unrealistic to transport from the mainland, let alone the barrier of tens of thousands of miles of sea, even this capacity is completely unable to undertake the task of transporting so much food.Then, there is only a local solution!

The local solution is nothing more than the following.First, cultivate fields within the area that he can control, and Mo Ming has already started to do this a while ago.Draining the swamp water near Yantai Fortress, building artificial reservoirs, and reclaiming wasteland are the first steps.In addition, some potatoes and spring wheat are currently planted in Heisui Port and Rishiri Island.However, the common points of the above are that the sown area is small, the land is not fertile, and most of them are raw fields. In the end, the total grain output may not be too high, and it can only be used as a supplement.

The second is to buy grain nearby, and buy grain and livestock from neighboring North Korea, Japan, and even the natives of Sakhalin Island.Not to mention that this will cost a lot of money, it is that these countries themselves do not have much food surplus.Not to mention the bitter natives of Sakhalin Island, North Korea’s food production is just that, so-so, but don’t forget that there are millions of people to feed, and it is basically difficult to have surplus food for sale.Just look at the wild boar skins that were collected from North Korea for food back then. It’s not that they don’t want to give it, but it’s true that they didn’t!The situation in Japan may not be as good as in North Korea, because its population is larger, and food will only be more scarce.Therefore, the purchase of grain from North Korea, Japan, and even the countries on the Indochina Peninsula can only be used as a supplement, a small part of the grain source, and cannot be relied on.

The third is fishing. This is the most reasonable and most likely way that people on the east coast can think of now.Guarding the world's richest fishing grounds and saying that there is not enough food, and you have certain fishing vessels and equipment, and more advanced fishing technology and knowledge, if you can still say such things, then it is really only I can doubt whether your IQ is at a normal level.Now that we know that local resources are so abundant, it's time to start preparing as early as possible.

According to Mo Ming's instructions, Sergeant Johnson is going to form a fishing team with hundreds of North Korean fishermen captured before and fifty east coast sailors in the city as the core.Of course, once the fishing team has manpower, the fishing boat must also be available.There are many big logs around Heishui Port. Although these logs are not suitable for building warships, they are also suitable for building merchant ships and fishing boats.However, there are still practical difficulties in shipbuilding, such as the lack of professional talents and supporting industries closely related to the upstream and downstream of shipbuilding.You must know that after so many years of development in the East Coast Republic of China, there is currently a small-scale shipyard in Xinhua Port, an overseas colony, and many of its supporting equipment, such as canvas, ropes, anchor chains, etc., need to be shipped from the mainland. It can be seen that it is difficult to open a shipyard overseas.Personnel, plant, equipment, docks, wood handling, etc., each of which can become a roadblock.

However, it is not difficult to build large ships, and those small boats that do not have much technical content and do not require any additional equipment are not difficult to build.When the fishing season comes, just put these small boats on the big boat, and then everyone will go out to sea directly on the big boat, and then divide them into small boats to go fishing after arriving at the place. The efficiency is not low at all.

After these three methods are implemented, it is estimated that there will still not be so much food every year at the beginning.But there is no way, who makes the people on the east bank not strong enough now.In fact, these few boats and hundreds of people are already here, and they are attacking the time when the Tartars have just finished wreaking havoc, and the local control of the Ming government has further declined. At least there is no way to gain a foothold on land in a short period of time.In short, let's build up the stronghold first. After all, we can't just watch the refugees die from war and starvation and remain indifferent.The collected refugees were immediately sent to Heishui Port and Rishiri Island to recuperate, and then waited for ships to be transported to Jinshan Port in Australia.

In the beginning, due to insufficient transportation capacity, maybe only a few thousand people can be transported every year, but that is already remarkable.In the past, the immigration fee for a population of several thousand would have been more than 100 million yuan, and it required the locals to sell dozens or millions of cotton cloths in Europe to earn back.So much money is fully worth all the investment back home.

After the "Fubo" and "Daohai" left, the "Baobab" and "Businessman" moored in the harbor were also loaded with cement, lime and about 7 yuan of large special bricks for the city wall. The northwest wind sails to Zhifu Island in the south.The brick kiln factory outside the city of Heishui Port has been in operation for about a month, and it is currently operating well.The work of making bricks can be done by women and children, and it will be more efficient after they are proficient. According to the current rhythm of producing one kiln in three days, each kiln can produce more than 2 standard bricks without any pressure.

Most of the bricks produced were supplied to the south to build the Yantai Fortress, and a small part of the remaining bricks began to be supplied to the local building of brick and tile houses in Heishui Port.According to the idea of ​​the technicians sent by the Local Construction Bureau, because of the cold climate of Heishui Port and the heavy snowfall in winter, the local style houses on the east coast are not suitable.Under his plan, the houses on the Heishui Port side will be built into Russian-style large-spired buildings so that the snow can slide down, and the roofs can no longer use the thin tiles of the past. thick.

In addition, every house must use a fireplace, which is considered for heating in winter.Sakhalin Island in winter is violent, with the cold westerly wind and the heavy snow. The frozen world can almost make people feel cold from the bones.It was therefore necessary to build warming fireplaces in every house, fueled by charcoal and exhausted by piped chimneys.A shed will also be built over the chimney to provide shelter from rain and snow.

The amount of this project is extremely huge.Especially at the moment when both the Yantai Fortress and Rishiri Island are diverting a large amount of construction materials, God knows that the Heishui Port will take several years to complete.Faced with such a situation, Sergeant Johnson decided to suspend most of the construction of Heishui Port, first fired a batch of refractory bricks, and then began to build a large-scale rotary kiln to greatly increase the production capacity of bricks.

However, considering that it is already the end of July, it is foreseeable that after the refractory bricks are fired and the construction of the wheel kiln is completed, Sakhalin Island is likely to enter winter, at least the temperature must not be far from zero. The time for firing bricks for everyone is only a short one or two weeks. Basically, don’t expect any output from the wheel kiln this year.

After weighing it carefully, Mo Ming approved the proposal.For this reason, he even lowered the monthly amount of special bricks provided by Heishui Brick Kiln Factory to Yantai Fortress to 5 yuan to ensure that Heishui Port has enough bricks for its own use to build a round kiln.Mo Ming believed that with so many bricks supplied and local materials used, most of the Yantai Fortress should be completed before the Qing soldiers officially entered Shandong in June or July next year.

(End of this chapter)