Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 368 Food Issues

In Heishui Port on September 1643, 9, the weather had gradually cooled down.The large straight birch forest around the port also shed large golden leaves under the blowing of the westerly wind.In this large area of ​​golden birch and poplar trees, there are occasionally some green firs dotted here and there, so that people can more or less find a little comfort in this withered and bleak cold season.

Winter in Sakhalin is coming!

A steam engine sailboat drove into the wharf of Heishui Port, and a group of dock workers of Korean origin who had put on cotton coats rushed forward immediately, graciously took the cables thrown by the sailors from the deck, and skillfully Fasten it to a stake on the shore.

"Hurry up and find someone to move the fish! Great harvest!" On the deck of the "Sea Crossing", the German boatswain with a thick beard laughed and roared towards the shore. Two sips of Daqu in the river, the pungent smell of wine made him roll his eyes.

Following his roar, a large group of dockworkers poured out of the low cabins around the pier, a considerable number of them were Ming people who had just been sent from Zhifu Island in the south a while ago.They will work in Heishui Port while recuperating their bodies, and wait for the boat to go to Jinshan Port in Australia in mid-to-late October.This is what the people on the east bank said to them. They don't know where this place is, and they don't know where Jinshan Port is. I am interested in the promise of my own land.

Daming could no longer survive, so it was normal to find a place where he could survive.Although he is not very happy to leave the land where his ancestors lived for generations, but in order to earn food and survive, he can only cross the ocean.Moreover, although these people from the east bank look fierce, they are fairly fair in dealing with things, and they promised to give themselves land, so let them go!I have a cheap life, and I was about to starve to death, but I was lucky enough to get my life back after eating the porridge they gave me, so what if I give my life back to them now?

Many fishermen in cotton coats got off the boat to the pier. Two by two they carried a bucket of preliminarily processed salmon and walked straight to the drying field not far from the pier.On the drying ground, it was a more spectacular scene. Countless salted fish were hung on a high place and swayed gently in the wind.At this time, if someone came to take a rough look with their eyes, they would soon find that there must be tens of thousands of fish here!What's more obvious is that most of the tens of thousands of fish here are not all of them, and more fish may have been taken away by the people on the east coast for storage.

Next to the drying yard, there is a row of hundreds of pots, and next to each pot are two newcomers, who are boiling seawater and salt.The coarse salt they boiled will be taken away by specialized technicians, and then undergo the next step of purification so that it can be eaten.In fact, people from the east coast brought a huge amount of refined salt when they came here, enough for everyone to eat for a long time.But the tragedy is that the salmon, saury, mackerel, etc. in this year's fishing season have a good harvest, so the salt is consumed rapidly in the process of salting the salted fish, and finally Mo Ming has to order to start Boil seawater and boil salt to replenish rapidly declining salt stocks.

This year's salmon fishing season has basically ended. Although there will be a few small waves of fish migrating in the next week, it will not affect the overall situation.People on the east coast have caught more than [-] salmon in the Heishui River, the Tatar Strait, the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, and Iturup Island, which is extremely productive. After making salted fish, it may be hundreds of tons.It's a pity that there are only six boats on the East Coast side. If there were more boats, it is estimated that the catch would be even greater.In particular, according to the response of the "Fubo" ship that went to investigate the saury fishing season near the Thousand Islands, the abundance of humpback salmon resources on Zezhuo Island is unimaginable.

It's a pity that the people on the east coast are not fully prepared, whether it is a lack of boats, manpower, or fishing nets, which leads to the unsatisfactory catch this year.You know, the Soviets didn’t have many fishing boats in the Far East back then, and they even had to buy fishing gear from Japan, but they could catch about [-] to [-] tons of salmon a year around Sakhalin Island.In comparison, in China, which is located in the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River, the annual catch of salmon is not even half of that of Lao Maozi, and in many cases it is even only one-third.In this era, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk has not undergone crazy fishing by the Russians and Japanese of later generations, and its rich fishery resources are rare in the world.Therefore, the salmon catches of people on the east coast this year can only be said to be mediocre.

The "Duohai" is the last ship to end the salmon fishing season this year. Before it, several ships including the "Fubo" have already moved to the waters of the South Kuril Islands, tracking the saury that has begun to go south to the coast of Japan. group.According to the description of the "Fubo" which was the first to track the fishing season of saury, saury jumped out of the sea from time to time, being chased by big fish. The dense fish really slowed down the speed of the ship like herring and cod in Newfoundland. Some.

At present, except for one of the Donganren's ships that regularly travels between Yantai Wharf and Heishui Port, the other four are all fishing there.Mo Ming and others optimistically predict that after this fishing season ends, the catch of saury and other fish such as Far Eastern sardines and mackerel will be at least [-] to [-] tons, or even more.

In the 20th century, Japan was a big country for catching saury. The amount of saury they caught in their own coastal waters was extremely large every year. It reached a peak of 60 tons in the 50s, and then declined year by year, but remained at about 20 tons.Of course, this is because the Japanese fishing boats are basically outboard net fishing boats that use lights to trap, so the output is particularly high.Before 1947, when traditional fishing methods were adopted, the annual catch of saury in Japan was only about tens of thousands of tons, and there were about 200-300 fishing boats involved in fishing, and the tonnage rarely exceeded 100 tons.

However, in the 17th century, when there was no overfishing by later generations, and in the waters of the South Thousand Islands, the fishery resources were more abundant than in Japan (the saury off the coast of Japan was in spring groups, mostly small fish), and the density of saury far exceeded that of later generations.Although only those multi-purpose expedition ships among the several ships of the East Coasters are equipped with professional large-scale trawls, the other ships have to be temporarily refitted; although most of the sailors of the East Coasters do not have much fishing experience; although the East Coasters The current fishing nets are not as good as the drift nets of later generations, but everyone still believes that it is not a problem to catch more than [-] tons of saury in this fishing season.

Even, if they are lucky enough to find other fish schools, it is not a problem to catch some sardines with an annual output of 100-200 million tons in later generations, not to mention that there are also a large number of mackerel, squid and other fish here. .The Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Pacific Northwest are really a natural granary!

More than 60 barrels of fish were finally removed from the cabin of the "Daohai", with a total of more than 50 fish. According to the experience of the previous days, they caught about 60-[-] tons of fish this trip, which is quite good.The workers on the drying ground are hanging the newly arrived fish on it. At this time, the westerly wind is strong, and these fish will basically dry themselves in a short time.

The salted fish that had been air-dried were also taken down and put into clean wooden boxes, and then stored in a dug ice cellar.The volume of the ice cellar is not large, about 600 cubic meters, in the shape of a cube.The surrounding walls are made of bricks, and the walls are painted with cement; the top floor is made of cement prefabricated panels, and the middle is supported by brick columns.Originally, Mo Ming planned to repair two layers of walls, with cotton and other materials stuffed in between for heat insulation, but considering the crude conditions here, he finally gave up this idea.

Besides, given the relatively cold climate at Heishui Port and the fact that it is now in the Little Ice Age, the temperature is already low. Therefore, as long as sealing measures are taken, the ice in this ice cellar may not melt throughout the summer.

The workers stacked the wooden boxes full of dried fish neatly next to the wall, and then went out.At this time, there is naturally no ice in the ice cellar, and it is necessary to wait until the Heishui River freezes and send people to dig it out of the river.In other words, this ice cellar is actually more for preparation for next year, that is, the fish caught next year will not be salted to prevent spoilage, but can be directly stuffed into the ice cellar for storage.All kinds of meat, including their slaughter, can be kept inside.

It is not far away from the chaos in the Central Plains when the Qing soldiers enter the customs next year. At that time, it will be a good time for the people on the east bank to collect refugees. At this time, they will not store more food. Then next year, when there is no harvest and the refugees are everywhere, they will stop eating everything. up.This year, people from the east coast have reclaimed some wasteland around Yantai Fortress, Rishiri Island and Heishui Port, and harvested a crop of potatoes one after another, but the harvest was not satisfactory.A total of less than [-] tons of potatoes were harvested from thousands of acres of wasteland, and the yield per unit area has almost hit a record low. After these fields are harvested, as the weather turns cold, it can basically be declared that this year's planting season has passed.

At present, there are hundreds of acres of spring wheat on Rishiri Island, and a small amount of sweet potato and corn intercropping fields near Yantai Fortress, and there is no harvest anymore.And the hundreds of tons of grain brought from the mainland before have been consumed during this period of time, and most of them have been consumed. It seems that in order to successfully withstand the refugee wave in the spring and summer of next year, this grain has to find a way to raise more.If it doesn't work, you can only "borrow" from the North Koreans.

The Koreans have been plundered many times by the people on the east coast, and even lost the county town. It is impossible to say that they were not on guard.But what's the point of being wary? When the second batch of local reinforcements arrives, the people on the east coast can organize a team of more than 2000 people. At that time, they can go to the capital of North Korea to borrow food!

(End of this chapter)