Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 405 Rear ([-])

Generally speaking, the people on the east coast are now operating Sakhalin Island and its surrounding areas (Rishiri Island, Rebun Island, and Ituru Island) as the rear.Not to mention the nearly [-] mu of farmland in Heishui, Dabo, and Yuanbo, infrastructure such as freight docks, fishery docks, and winter docks are also under construction in full swing.As the local core city, Heishui Port, from the end of last year until now, projects such as brick and tile kiln, wood drying kiln, wood processing plant, ship repair/shipyard and other projects have been put into operation one after another. If you count Heishui in the nearby mountains Coal mines and two quarries, a fully functional primary industrial city began to reveal its prototype.

It is said that after two years of initial creation by the people on the east bank in Heishui Port, the ship repair station is now relatively well manned; in addition, a small wood drying kiln was built here in the first half of this year, and it has been officially put into use , then local shipbuilding was put on the official agenda. Not long after the port thawed in April, Rosenberg, the person in charge of the shipyard, obtained a permit from Mo Ming to test-build small fishing boats locally.

There are ten various technical personnel dispatched from the local area in the shipyard, including one chief engineer (Rosenberg), one designer (Lola), two professional technicians, two senior craftsmen, and four skilled craftsmen. The technical strength is not bad.After absorbing some Ming and Korean shipbuilders, and recruiting some half-child apprentices, they finally set up the shelf that a ship repair/shipyard should have.Therefore, after the wood drying kiln, which is closely related to shipbuilding, was also built and successfully debugged, they could finally build ships at this time.

This time, the fishing boat that went out to sea full of crabs is the first work of our factory - a small sloop fishing boat of about 150 tons.Due to the low technical content of this small fishing boat of more than 100 tons, when the construction started in April, they made three boats in one go.At the beginning of this month, the first fishing boat has been completed and launched for sea trials, which is the fishing boat that has just docked.

With 20 sailors and fishermen on board, they use a medium-sized trawl net woven with hemp rope to catch crabs and cod along the waters around Sakhalin Island, and the harvest is very rich.If there was anything wrong with it, it was that the nets were damaged too often.In fact, this is mainly a matter of material, and the twine is just like this. Do you still expect to have fishing nets made of modern nylon?If the fishing net material problem cannot be solved, it can only be repaired and replaced frequently. It seems that the next step is to purchase more such materials from Japan.

As for shipbuilding materials, there are many on Sakhalin Island.Not to mention far away places, on the hills near Heishui Port, there are patches of deciduous forests and coniferous forests everywhere. The main tree species are birch, poplar, fir, fish scale pine, oak and so on.Among them, white birch and white poplar are not suitable for shipbuilding, they can only be used to build wooden houses, make furniture, wooden barrels, etc.; but the extremely large number of fir and oak forests can be used for shipbuilding. These two kinds of trees are easy to process and durable. Corrosion is not a problem at all when it is used to build fishing boats.It is not impossible to use those oak trees to build warships. This kind of tree belongs to the same family as the oak trees planted in large quantities on the east coast, and the oak trees in Europe and North America. The texture is similar, and it is an ideal ship material.

The Dongan people also set up a logging camp next to the coal mine in the mountains, which was in charge of Xing Damu, the former county magistrate of Wendeng County, Ninghai Prefecture, Dashun Dengzhou Prefecture.Xing Damu was the one who warned the people on the east coast of Laiyang that the country gentry wanted to move eastward. Historically, this person was killed by the armed forces of the officials, gentry and landlords in Laiyang less than a month after he took office. The local people "buried him in Xiangyan Beside Sidong Road" and "There are still people sweeping his grave after a hundred years of Cold Food Festival", which shows that he is not a cruel person. He has not harmed the local people at least in the first month of his tenure, and may have done some good deeds.

Fearing that the people on the east coast of Yantai Fort would retaliate, the Laiyang government and gentry hesitated for a long time at the border of the county, but in the end they still did not dare to attack.After Mo Ming learned of this, he immediately ordered Xing Damu, who was nominally under his control, to take money, food, and entourage to evacuate Wendeng in order to shrink the front line.After Xing Damu arrived in Yantai, Mo Ming arranged for him to be here in Heishui Port.When he first arrived here, Xing Damu was still a little uncomfortable, but he realized that King Chuang had been defeated now, and who had the final say on Denglai's side. He quickly turned around and took a group of followers to cut his hair short. He changed into the "work clothes" of the people from the east coast, and served as the supervisor of the logging camp and the timber processing factory by the Heishui River below the mountain.

Xing Damu was born as a carpenter, and his craftsmanship was not bad at first, but after so many years of fighting and killing, his craftsmanship has become a little bit abandoned.After taking over the logging camp and wood processing factory this time, he and two technicians from the east coast learned how to install and use wood processing machines such as hydraulic sawing machines.The three of them later recruited more than 20 carpenters among the immigrants, and also recruited a larger number of apprentices, and then completely operated the wood processing factory.And it is precisely because of this wood processing factory that uses simple hydraulic processing machinery that the talents on the east coast can obtain a steady stream of various types of wood, wooden barrels, wooden boxes, carriages, shields and other urgently needed equipment.

The remaining two ships will be completed almost one after another in the middle of this month.At that time, they will go to the waters near Iturup Island together with the other North Korean fishing boat to catch the extremely rich humpback salmon resources there.The other ships will go to Heilongjiang Estuary, Tumen River Estuary, Balonai River and other salmon migration routes in batches to ensure that more fish can be caught to supplement the dwindling food on hand resource.

As of yesterday, the people on the east bank had less than 500 tons of various types of grain on hand, and this was added to the more than 6000 shi of grain recently captured from North Korea, and the [-] shi of grain they asked for from Guo Sheng.The reason for such a large consumption is that the population under the rule (plus the nearly [-] women captured from North Korea this time) has reached more than [-] people, and another more important reason is that Heishui, Dabo The [-] mu of farmland sown in the two places consumed a total of about [-] to [-] tons of stock potatoes.

In order to save food, starting from late May, Mo Ming ordered the Ming immigrants who refused to cut their hair to be reduced from three meals to two meals, and reduced or even stopped their small fish supply.At the same time, he also let the various large and small ships under his jurisdiction go out to sea to fish whenever they have time, so that they were so stretched out that they could not let the food run out quickly.But now the 5 tons of grain reserves are already very poor, and it may not be enough for everyone to last for 500 days.And the first wave of grain will not be harvested until around August 20th. There is a 8-day window period in the middle, and it is not so easy to survive.

Fortunately, it is not without good news.Starting from the middle and late this month, the annual salmon fishing season is coming. With the gradual completion of ships, equipment, and fishing nets this year, the harvest should far exceed that of last year.With these fish and meat, and the nearly 800 heads of various livestock at hand, the first crop of grain can almost be harvested.This year is the second year for the 8 mu of potatoes in Heishui Port, and with the selection of seeds, it is conservatively estimated that they can harvest more than 1200 tons; and by the end of August, there are about [-] to [-] mu of sweet potatoes, Corn can also be harvested, which can harvest more than [-] tons; in September, [-] acres of potatoes reclaimed in Dabo can be harvested; in mid-October, [-] acres of spring wheat on Rishiri Island can be harvested.

In this way, the food will be revitalized at once.And if the grain harvest in Yantai Fortress goes well, maybe they will have time to replant another crop of potatoes, which will be harvested around the end of November.But at that time, if there is no accident, Yantai has already been snowed heavily, and it is still a matter of whether the potatoes will be frozen; and the Qing army is likely to attack the city in a large scale in the second half of the year. Once the farmland outside the city is destroyed by them, the loss outweighs the gain. It is better not to take the risk of rushing to plant, so as not to waste precious food.

And starting from October, with the change of wind direction in the northern hemisphere, migrants will be shipped to Australia one after another, and the speed of food consumption will be greatly reduced by then.In order to increase the intake of animal protein for the refugees, enhance their physical fitness, and better adapt to the life of the voyage, the people on the east coast distributed nearly 10 pack horses to various farmlands and 800 war horses stayed in Yantai. Inside and outside the fortress, they also sent more than [-] cattle and sheep to Rebun Island next to Rishiri Island by boat.

The area of ​​Rebun Island is about 80 square kilometers, the climate is quite suitable, the forest coverage rate is high, and there are many grasslands, so the food is relatively rich.In addition, this island is in the warm current of Japan, the temperature is not so cold, the port is not frozen in winter, and the temperature in the coldest month will not exceed minus [-] degrees.Therefore, there is no need to send people to stay behind to take care of these livestock overwintering, just let them reproduce on their own, and when the population reaches a certain level, they can organize people to hunt, which is very cost-effective.And not only cattle and sheep, the people on the east coast also bought a considerable number of reindeer from the natives of Sakhalin Island. The live moose, roe deer and other animals captured were all sent to the island to let them reproduce by themselves.

The island is small in size, but it is rich in food. It is a natural pasture given to the people on the east coast by God.Since April, people from the east coast have successively released 4 cattle, 352 sheep, 508 reindeer, 241 roe deer, 305 moose and 72 captured wild boars to the island.Based on the abundant food sources in this place, there is no harassment by predators, and the East Coast Fleet regularly passes by to prevent poaching by outsiders. It is believed that after years of free reproduction, the population of these released animals will surely increase. It will increase dramatically, and then the people on the east coast will have a stable source of meat.

(End of this chapter)