Liu Yifeng thought that the island they landed on was Attu Island, the westernmost island of the Aleutian Islands, but it turned out not to be the case.

The Aleutian Islands are the continuation of the Alaska continental shelf in the northwest of North America toward the east, so many islands stretch out in a line from east to west, with the westernmost Attu Island at the top.

The Maritime Safety Administration calls the westernmost Attu Island one island, and then all the way eastward, all the islands with fresh water resources and habitable islands are called "two islands, three islands... twenty-eight islands" in order.

But the Maritime Safety Administration has really invested its energy in the construction of only the first and fifth islands in the west, the thirteen islands in the middle, and the two largest islands in the west: the twenty-seventh island and the twenty-eighth island.

Among them, there is a shipyard on Twenty-seven Islands. All ships going to Dongshan Prefecture must dock there for maintenance. All ships returning to Daming must also dock there for final inspection.

To put it simply, the status of Twenty-Seven Islands is similar to that of Liugui Castle.

"Have we passed an island?"

"Of course, we will go directly to the Thirteen Islands, and then to the Twenty-Seven Islands." After saying this, the crew member's face showed a look that every man would understand: "There is a brothel on the Twenty-Seven Islands, and it is said that they are all Japanese female slaves who stayed in exile.

Those Japanese female slaves in the ghost town will most likely be sent to Twenty-Seven Island in the end."

Liu Yifeng didn't care about the Japanese slave girls. He only cared about which of the twenty-seven islands was in the Aleutian Islands.

In fact, he only knew about Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands. After all, it was the only American land that ijn occupied during World War II.

The island not far from the horizon is called Thirteen Islands by the crew. Thirteen Islands can't be said to be very big. It is a typical mountainous island with a mountain as its main body. All buildings are built on a plain at the foot of the mountain.

Visually, the building complex is as big as a village.

"About 200 people live here, and they basically rotate every two years." Song Yingxing explained to his three students: "They are responsible for supplying a certain level of supplies to passing ships, mainly fresh water and fresh vegetables.

Although the conditions were difficult, the reward for persisting for two years was a full 200 taels, which was enough for them to return to Ming Dynasty and become small landowners."

Yang Changbai and Sun Xin looked at each other, and Yang Changbai said: "Master Song, 200 taels can't buy much land."

"You can't buy it in the Central Plains, but you can buy it in Beiting Protectorate, Annan Protectorate, Northeast, Dongyi Peninsula, North and South Fuso Island, Liugui Prefecture and Dongshan Prefecture."

These places are frontier places in the minds of traditional Chinese people, and most of them are not so willing to go.

"Are they really willing to leave their hometown?"

"If you don't want to go, you can buy a shop in the city for 200 taels and do some small business."

"If it doesn't work out, you can buy development bonds issued by the Maritime Safety Administration. It's also good to invest in Dongshan Prefecture or Annan Protectorate."

The discussion between the three people is basically the way that most people in the Ming Dynasty who have made a small fortune unexpectedly by developing border areas or relying on external expansion wars will basically choose to deal with their floating wealth.

Few people would choose to leave their hometowns to become landlords in frontier lands. Most of them invested in the mainland of Ming Dynasty, which made the trend of private business more and more popular.

At this time, officials from the Maritime Safety Bureau of the Thirteen Islands were already driving a small boat toward Song Yingxing and his group, the Nanyang-class ship. The boat was carrying fresh water and fresh vegetables.

"Master Song, why don't we dock?"

"No docking. Among the twenty-eight islands, only twenty-seven have ports that allow the Zhenghe-class and Nanyang-class to dock. The other islands can only rely on small boats or sampans for supplies."

“Why not build a big port?”

"A large port is not a fishing port, and it cannot be repaired just by repairing it."

Song Yingxing explained: "And building large ports is also very expensive. Twenty-seven islands only had small ports at the beginning. A large port was only built five years ago. This incident made Mr. Xu at the time banned by the cabinet at the year-end financial meeting.

The other cabinet elders have been attacking for a long time. Even His Majesty, who has always favored the Maritime Safety Administration, was forced to retreat by the cabinet elders, and they only gave up after Mr. Xu promised not to build a large port on the Twenty-Eight Islands."

It is an open secret of the Ming Dynasty that the cabinet and the Maritime Safety Administration do not deal with it, but what the cabinet hates most is Dongshan Prefecture, which not many people know about.

Why does the cabinet hate Dongshan Prefecture?

Isn’t it because Dongshan Prefecture, a money-absorbing black hole that can only be entered but cannot be exited and with no sign of improvement in a short period of time, can absorb one-tenth of the imperial government’s fiscal budget every year.

Although the Annan Protectorate, Beiting Protectorate and the newly built Western Army each take away one-tenth of their share every year, they can see signs of feeding back to the Central Plains in the short term, not to mention that the Annan Protectorate has already

It is feeding back the Central Plains.

Natural disasters have continued in recent years, but food prices in the nine southern provinces have been as stable as Mount Tai, supported entirely by rice from the Annan Protectorate.

The signs that the Beiting Protectorate has begun to feed back the Central Plains are becoming more and more obvious. The livestock industry in several small grasslands in Monan and the three large grasslands in Mobei has drastically reduced the livestock pressure in the north of the Ming Dynasty.

After the Western Army conquered the fertile Western Regions, it would be able to feed the Central Plains back in one or two years at most. Thinking back to the prosperity of the Silk Road in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty made the cabinet and the court very excited.

And what do you have in Dongshanzhou?

Poor mountains and rivers!

After discovering Dongshan Prefecture, the cabinet was also excited. After all, the coastline that is comparable to the length of the Ming Dynasty shows that this is a new continent. But from the north where snow falls all year round to the south where people wear single clothes, except for some small plains along the coast,

, they are all mountains and mountains comparable to Bashu, with no development value.

Those small plains are indeed good farmland and can also be used for grazing. However, the desperate distance means that the food produced in Dongshan Prefecture does not need to be transported back to the Ming Dynasty because the cost is too high, so it can only be produced and sold by ourselves.

And there are not that many people in Dongshan Prefecture, so why produce so much food?

The Maritime Safety Administration advised His Majesty to immigrate to the Annan Protectorate, but the reason why the Annan Protectorate immigrated was because the grain produced could be transported to the southern provinces in a timely manner. In addition to cultivating farmland and pastures, what else do the important people of Dongshan Prefecture do?

use?

So it’s back to the original question: Why cultivate so much land and produce so much food?

Although the Maritime Safety Administration has received His Majesty's support, it insists on immigrating every year. However, the food produced by these immigrants cannot become wealth. In addition to food, these immigrants need to import all other materials from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, especially iron products.

At present, the development of Dongshan Prefecture is basically in the coastal area, because whether it is in the north or the central part, you can't walk far from the shore before entering the mountains. Moreover, it is a completely undeveloped mountainous area, and even the mountain roads need to be developed by yourself.

No minerals were found in the developed area along the coast of Dongshan Prefecture, and all iron products had to be transported from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty.

This is nothing. The agricultural industry in the Ming Dynasty is now very developed, and there are countless merchants in the city selling iron products to the Annan Protectorate and the Beiting Protectorate.

But the question is: What does Dongshan Prefecture do with these trading houses?

The Beiting Protectorate has animal skins and herds. The Annan Protectorate has various grains and some cash crops.

What is there in Dongshanzhou?

There is no food that can be transported back to the mainland, and the people are too poor to buy anything. Even if there is a certain degree of fur trade with the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, it cannot support the huge demand for basic materials in Dongshan Prefecture.

Therefore, in addition to Dongshan Prefecture achieving self-sufficiency in food, all basic materials and commodities were purchased by the court from the private sector and then transported to Dongshan Prefecture.

The Cabinet has always wanted the Maritime Safety Administration to bear this cost, but His Majesty does not agree.

The existence of Dongshan Prefecture not only added glory to the Ming Dynasty by opening up territory and expanding its territory, but also obtained more financial budgets for the Maritime Safety Administration. It did not help the court at all. Instead, the court had to support Dongshan Prefecture. This is
Chapter completed!