Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 919 The Alliance ([-])

On January 1652, 1, Rishiri Island, Omobo Port, light snow.

Accompanied by the flute-shaped transport ship "Baobab Tree", the master-class armed transport ship "Galicia Flying Fish" slowly docked at the wharf of Yuanbo Port.It took them a lot of effort to find a good place to anchor. Because there were too many medium-sized fishing boats moored in the port, the dock officials had to urgently mobilize sailors to move some small boats. The big boat was let in.

The piercing northwest wind blows non-stop outside the port. Although the power of the turbulent sea has been offset by the coastline and breakwater several times, it still creates a lot of swells in Yuanbo Port, which makes everyone who is getting on and off the boat at the moment feel a little inconvenient. ——It’s a big deal to fall into the sea at this season, after all, no one can guarantee that you will not be frozen into a popsicle when you are fished out of the harbor.You must know that the latitude of Rishiri Island is already very low. If it were not affected by a branch of the Japanese warm current, this island would have been frozen as early as the coastlines of Ezo, Sakhalin Island, and the outer northeast coast. It's solid.

Liang Xiangjian and Tang Mengxu, who had just been transferred from the mainland to the Far East to "golden"—oh, I was wrong, it was work—were dressed in thick leather clothes, and went down like two frozen quails. Then, surrounded by the local mayor, the captain of the garrison and others who came to greet him specially, he went to the urban residence to warm up.

After so many years of intensive management, Yuanbo Port has achieved considerable construction achievements.Liang Xiangjian and his wife looked all the way, but they saw houses and shops abound on Shizi Street in the center of the city. Even though the weather is very cold, pedestrians are still common on the street.This is a city that thrives on immigration. Every November, when the seas off Heishui and Dabo counties begin to freeze, immigrant transport ships begin to gather on Rishiri Island to transfer immigrants stranded in the resettlement camps outside Yuanbo Port City.There is also a medium-sized ship repair yard on this island, which stores a large amount of sailcloth, cables, iron spears, ship planks, tar, mechanical parts and other ship tools and spare parts all year round. Coal - mostly black water coal, a few Kushiro coal.

And it is precisely because the island has a large number of floating population coming in and out (immigrants waiting to be transported) every year, which naturally gave birth to the prosperity of the island's business.After all, in the middle of each year, thousands of migrants waiting to be transported gather here. During the six months of their stay, they also have to work (logging, road repairing, house building, arable land, digging ditches, twisting ropes, weaving nets, etc.). salary), and usually consume some commodities for themselves or their families, not to mention that besides them, there are also a large number of sailors and soldiers with high spending power. These strong demands have naturally led to the vigorous development of local businesses. The craftsmen made a fortune, changed their status as the "five black classes" in Daming, and jumped into the middle class of the city.

The commercial prosperity of the city has also indirectly improved the productivity of Rishiri Island. Judging from the fishing industry that local residents are most engaged in, due to the large demand (mainly from the military) in Denglai, Ningbo and other places, the salmon, The saury fishing industry has developed very fast, and even many fishing boats registered in Heishui Port, Dabo Port and Temple Street Port also go south to spend the winter in Rishiri Island in winter, because the seaport here is not frozen all year round. When the fishing season appears, they can also venture out to sea for fishing.

For example, in autumn, many fishing boats will detour to the eastern waters of Ezo to catch Pacific pleura, and the output is increasing year by year. Last year (1651), all types of fishing boats on Rishiri Island were in the east of Ezo (located in Hezo) The converging front area of ​​the warm tide current and the cold Oyashio current, the fishing season is generally in winter), the northwest of Kyushu Island (the fishing season is December-February of the following year), the Aomori-Fukushima sea area of ​​Honshu Island (the fishing season is March-August) and Okushiri Island Fishing grounds (fishing season July-August) and several other discovered fishing grounds caught more than 12 tons of Pacific squid—an extremely astonishing output.In addition, there are some small-scale catches of calamari and squid, but their catches are not at the same level as those of Pacific squid. However, residents from all over the world have not formed a plan to buy them. consumption habits.

Of course, compared with cephalopods, the largest annual catch in the Heishui area on the east coast is still small pelagic fish, mainly saury.The annual output of this pelagic fish has climbed to more than 4000 tons, and it has actually become the backbone of blackwater seafood. Various pickled fish, canned salted fish, smoked fish and other foods are all made of saury.

In today's Denglai, Shandong, the local east coast garrison also has a saury as a meal for every meal, which is almost standard.And under the leadership of soldiers and officials—especially after some soldiers returned to their hometowns to allocate land—and a large amount of cheap seafood flooded into Shandong, the acceptance of saury among the people is also increasing day by day.At least in Penglai, Yantai, Fushan, Ninghai, Weihai, Jiaozhou, Zhaoyuan and other counties in Shandong, many residents have gradually acquired the habit of consuming saury. It has promoted the development of offshore fishing in the black water area.

Even, stimulated by the high profits of offshore fisheries, some people who are willing to venture out also apply to move to Sakhalin Island and Ezo, and engage in seafood fishing, which greatly enriches the fishery market on the east coast and increases fishery output. .Of course, due to some conceptual factors, there are not too many people who dare to venture into the world. In addition, there are very few conflicts between people and land in Denglei now, and most people are unwilling to move. not many.And without people, there will be no fishery output. This is a very clear problem from the perspective of the upper echelons on the east coast. Wei Boqiu, who is in charge of the economic work of Blackwater, even plans to go to North Korea, where the population is overpopulated, to recruit some fishermen to increase the income of Blackwater. fishery production.

All in all, with the backing of a "golden sea ranch" such as the Thousand Islands Fishing Ground, it has grown to more than 80 medium-sized fishing boats (standard displacement of 150 tons, and sometimes large navy ships will also participate in fishing activities during the fishing season to increase production. )'s east coast fishing fleet catches more than [-] tons of various seafood in the Sea of ​​Japan, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the eastern coastal waters of the Japanese archipelago every year.

Among them, the saury with the largest output is 4200 tons, followed by cephalopods including Pacific pleated squid with about 2500 tons; next is salmon (mainly salmon), which is mainly The annual output of high-fat and high-protein cold-water fish caught in coastal waters and inland rivers has gradually climbed to about 1600 tons in recent years; the Far Eastern sardine is ranked below the salmon, and the output of this fish fluctuates greatly, because once a large fish is found If you are unlucky and don't find it, the output is often only tens to hundreds of tons; in addition, the output of other seafood such as swordfish, squid, shrimp and crab It's not big, and the odds and ends add up to only a hundred tons a year, which is not worth mentioning.

It is worth mentioning that these cold-water fish caught in the Northwest Pacific Ocean have a high fat content, which is far from comparable to warm-water fish or inland freshwater fish in the south.Therefore, eating this kind of fish is more "hungry", because it is rich in nutrition (the calories of warm-water fish or freshwater fish per unit weight are only a fraction to one-tenth of that of grains, so it is impossible to survive by eating fish alone Tan).

Now that the battle in Ningbo is imminent, after Liu Haiyang's military action report has been approved by Shao Shude, the war machine in the entire Heishui area has quietly started.The military is in charge of the southern theater, but the logistics part needs to be supported by the north as appropriate.For example, Liang Xiangjian and Tang Mengxu came to Rishiri Island this time to transport away a large amount of seafood accumulated here, and the destination is Ningbo Dinghai Port.

The township head of Yuanbo Port also knew the purpose of the two people's visit, so this meeting was no nonsense, and he took them directly to several large ice cellars in the city, where buckets of processed seafood were piled up. Fish, saury, sardines (canned), Pacific pufferfish and more.

"The fish in the buckets are marked on the outside, and each bucket is 2803 catties. There are a total of 2000 barrels in stock in these ice cellars. I can only take away 4 barrels for the two adults at most, and the rest will have to be sold." Keep it for emergencies." The mayor looked at the two superiors and said cautiously: "There are still quite a few stocks in the ice cellars in Dabo, Heishui, and Temple Street. The Dabo port will be thawed in April. You can send a ship there for transportation at any time. In addition, the Japanese company also built an underground ice cellar in Kushiro Port last year, and there may be some frozen fish and frozen meat stored in it, but it costs money to buy..."

"That's enough, that's enough, I won't empty out your family." Liang Xiangjian waved his hand to the village head impatiently, and said, "I will transfer 2000 barrels from you, and the procedures will be completed for you in a while. In addition , you can transfer thousands of people from the city to me. I heard that the goats, wild boars, moose, roe deer, and cattle that were raised on Liwen Island were overrun. We will stay here for another ten and a half months. During this time, hunts will be organized on the main island (Rishiri Island), Rebun Island, and Okushiri Island, and some good meat will be collected and taken away by ship. The Southern War is imminent, and the sergeants will consume a lot, so this meat must be consumed.”

"This is no problem!" The township head immediately patted his chest and assured, "1000 people, more than half of them are skilled Shandan hunters, half a month is definitely enough to catch tens of hundreds of tons of good meat. In fact, our warehouse Now there are dozens of tons of high-quality ham, if you two adults need it, you can take it away, as long as the procedures are complete and you can make a small transaction."

"You've got a heart, kid." Liang Xiangjian patted the village chief on the shoulder carelessly and praised.

(End of this chapter)