In the Heilongjiang and Songhua River basins, most of the indigenous boats are canoes.
Even when the Manchus conquered the Daur people, they ordered the local tribes to provide a number of canoes to accompany the army. As the Manchus strengthened their control over the Songhua River Basin, in order to facilitate the shipment of Dongzhu and mink skins, larger ships were finally built.
, the tribes in the Songhua River Basin also followed suit.
In two years, the Anton Duhufu (Heilongjiang Dusi) built more than 100 ships.
The Andong Navy was also organized and trained. The officers and soldiers were directly drawn from the postal system, because many of the officials in the postal system were dismissed soldiers of the Yangtze River Navy. If the number of sailors was not enough, the children of the Yangtze River sand people were recruited. These sand people
In the past, they were somewhere between farmers and water bandits, and they had long developed a tradition of sticking together and being fierce and aggressive.
From Tieling to Harbin, there are five land and water stations along the way.
From Harbin to Tongjiang, there are four waterway stations along the way.
From Tongjiang to Hailanpao, there are three waterway stations along the way.
There are very few people in each post station. The post chief plus the post guards, including family members, will not exceed ten people. Not only the settlement allowance is sufficient, but also additional subsidies, the further north you go, the higher the subsidy.
The post station also functions as a trading post. The nearby tribes will bring furs, Dongzhu and other special products. A small part is tribute (disguised tax) and must be handed over to the Andong Protectorate; most of it is commodities and is usually stored in
The inn is waiting for merchants to buy it.
Although Heilongjiang is remote and bitterly cold, there are many people willing to do business.
They are all small-scale merchants who bring cloth, tea, iron pots, grain and other commodities, and transport them to various inns in exchange for furs and pearls. Instead, they bring silver coins and copper coins, which are not widely accepted yet. They have to wait until the population increases.
, the currency value can only be reflected after the trade volume becomes larger.
The establishment of this inn and trading system quickly deepened the relationship between the court and the indigenous people.
Merchants can make money, and the natives can also obtain daily necessities. The Duhufu also collects symbolic taxes (in the form of tribute). Even the postmen and postmen have a small amount of oil and water to earn. As long as they don't make much, the Duhufu will definitely
Turn a blind eye and close an eye.
In the next few years, the station system will continue to extend eastward, from Tongjiang to Sakhalin Island.
As long as the amount of tribute is not set too high, and as long as the price of the goods is not too high, the tribes in the Northeast will not rebel. In fact, whoever dares to attack the post station will definitely become the target of public criticism. It is the only channel for the indigenous tribes to obtain materials from the Han Dynasty!
Zhang Tingxun set off with the grain transport team, which was actually the Anton Navy.
The ships of the Anton Navy only have a displacement of 50-100 tons. The tonnage is much larger than the Cossack ships, but they do not run as fast. Their main task is to transport troops, grain and cargo.
Under the re-adjustment of the imperial court, the displacement of ships was no longer measured in "materials" but in "tons". Shipyards in various places had tools for calculating displacement. The most direct method was to apply heavy objects like Cao Chong weighed elephants.
The "ton" is a unit of weight that was named by the emperor himself and appeared out of thin air.
1 ton = 10 shi = 1,000 catties = 16,000 taels = 160,000 qian = 1,600,000 cents.
It can be clearly seen that for the convenience of statistics, Emperor Zhao changed the "stone". In the past, 1 stone was equal to 120 catties, and now 1 stone was changed to 100 catties, and the intermediate conversion unit "jun" was canceled (1 stone is equal to 4 jun,
1 jun equals 30 kilograms).
Emperor Zhao also planned to change the hexadecimal system for converting kilograms.
But the change was too big, and the currency system had to be adjusted accordingly, and the scales in the hands of the people had to be replaced. Faced with opposition from both the government and the public, Emperor Zhao could only choose to compromise.
At night, the fleet stopped at the inn pier.
The dock was very crudely repaired. The ground was leveled and some wooden boards were put up on the riverside.
The inns were even simpler, all low-rise houses made of rammed earth. The walls were filled with withered grass and the roofs were covered with withered grass to protect them from the cold in winter.
This simple mud house was built with the help of soldiers, and the few people at the post station were simply not enough.
A great undertaking begins with simplicity.
The postmaster came out with his postmasters to greet him. They were unable to provide food and they just came out to say hello.
After several sacks of grain were brought down, Yi Cheng was very happy and said to Hou Rusong, the navy general of the grain transport team: "General Hou, the leather and dongzhu for the first half of the year have been collected for tribute (taxation)."
"Thank you for your hard work, Brother Pei," Hou Rusong handed over a cigar, "I usually can't bear to smoke the top quality products from southern Ganxi. Let me try one."
"General, you are generous!" Yi Cheng beamed.
Whether they are navy soldiers or Yi Cheng, they all came from the same system in the past, and now they are all thrown to the Northeast. The relationship between them is very harmonious.
Hou Rusong turned to Zhang Tingxun and asked: "Do you want a cigar, young master?"
Zhang Tingxun was disgusted with this title. He took the cigar and said with a smile: "General, you should call me by my name."
Hou Rusong introduced: "Brother Pei, this is Zhang Tingxun, the son of Governor Zhang's family."
Yi Cheng quickly raised his hand and said: "Greetings to the young master."
"I am Captain Zhang." Zhang Tingxun became more and more depressed as he listened.
Yi Cheng said again: "Meet Captain Zhang."
"It's easy to say, Pei Yicheng is polite." Zhang Tingxun returned the gift.
Yi Cheng asked: "Did you bring the newspaper?"
Hou Rusong said: "I brought them, they are old newspapers from last year."
"As long as you have newspapers, it doesn't matter whether they are new or old." Yi Cheng was even more happy.
The post stations in the Heilongjiang and Songhua River basins are now equipped with only three small express boats at each station. All supplies need to be transported by the navy, and the express boats at the inn stations are used to convey military information.
The postmen and postmasters also farmed their own land, but they mainly grew vegetables, and the grain fields still needed to be cultivated slowly.
Even the grain from Harbin was transported from Liaoning, and was transported from Harbin to the stations along the way. The consumption on the way accounted for a large proportion. Therefore, it was impossible to station large armies in the Heilongjiang Basin, and the logistical burden was too heavy.
When various tribes resume agricultural production, they will begin to collect physical taxes on the farmland along the river, and then the tribute of furs and dongzhu will be cancelled.
The sailors went ashore to set up pots for cooking, and Yi Chengdan invited Hou Rusong, Zhang Tingxun, and several other officers into the house to eat.
Very simple rice and vegetables, and some marinated meat.
The meat comes from the postmen's leisure hunting. The postmen here are equipped with a full set of armor. Once there is a war, they immediately put on cotton armor and fight with muskets and waist knives.
Yi Cheng took out the wine jar and was about to smash it and seal it when Hou Rusong stopped him and said, "You can keep it for winter, but don't drink it all now."
"Yes, yes, I have prepared some." Yi Cheng said with a smile.
Hou Rusong said to the other officers: "Pay me!"
Everyone, including Zhang Tingxun, paid money one after another. Zhang Tingxun paid with copper coins, and the rest all paid with military coupons.
Yi Cheng quickly refused: "I can't do it, I can't do it, they are all my brothers."
"You work hard here, so we can't let you spend money." Hou Rusong insisted on giving money.
The post station of the New Dynasty in Datong did not provide free meals, and this meal was obviously a treat for the post official. The post station here was just established last autumn, and the soldiers in Harbin had a harder time.
Finally, the money was given and forced into the hands of Yi Cheng.
After everyone had filled their stomachs and went out to chat, the postmaster and the postmen called their wives to eat the leftovers. Because there was meat and meat, even the leftovers were better than the usual meals.
Their children were not picked up and were left in their hometown to be taken care of by their relatives.
Li Zheng is currently applying to the imperial court to bring in more doctors. Even apprentices who have not yet graduated will be fine. Try to assign doctors to each inn. In the future, they may even have to have part-time midwives. Moreover, with doctors, the inn's popularity will also increase.
If it is more prosperous, the nearby indigenous people will definitely come to seek medical advice, which will bring the connection between the indigenous people and the Han people closer.
It was getting dark now, and the postmen picked up the newspapers that had just been delivered and read last year's outdated news with relish.
They used to be sailors, and the army had a class for illiteracy, so they knew more or less a few words. However, they still found it difficult to read the newspaper. They often came to ask Yi Cheng what he meant when he was halfway through reading.
They did not love knowledge, nor did they want to expand their knowledge. They were simply thrown into a harsh and cold place in order to obtain more information about the Han Dynasty.
Reading the newspaper felt like returning to the customs.
Yi Cheng saw that Zhang Tingxun had no aristocratic airs, so he took the initiative to ask for interesting facts about Nanjing.
Zhang Tingxun said with a smile: "The biggest news in the south is that the Crown Prince is going to choose a concubine. Do you know how to choose a concubine?"
Even Hou Rusong became interested and hurriedly asked: "How did you choose?"
Zhang Tingxun said: "You must graduate from middle school, and ten from each province will be selected and sent to Nanjing for re-election. The first level of re-selection is the exam. If the exam is too poor, it means that the local officials are cheating, and the reason for sending them is
Not a female high school graduate!”
"Hahaha," Hou Rusong laughed, "This is strange. The prince also has to take an exam when choosing his concubine."
Yi Cheng's eyes lit up: "Doesn't it mean that as long as we, the daughters of border soldiers, can graduate from middle school, we will have the opportunity to become the concubines of the Tian family?"
"Then you should hurry up and give birth to a daughter," Hou Rusong said teasingly. "The prince is about to get married, and I think he will have a grandson in a year or two. If you give birth to a daughter, she will be about the same age as the grandson. Isn't it just a matter of marriage in the future?"
Opportunity for heaven.”
Yi Chengle said: "I'll have a good time with my mother-in-law tomorrow."
"Hahahaha!" Everyone laughed.
There are plans to build a school in Harbin, but it's not ready yet because there aren't many children.
From now on, the children of the stations along the way can be sent to school. The primary school will definitely be free, and the number of public-funded students in the middle school will be increased. This can also be regarded as preferential treatment for border soldiers.
The conversation was lively here, and the postmen stopped reading newspapers and gathered around to listen to Zhang Tingxun's anecdotes about Nanjing.
Zhang Tingxun is not good at reading, but he is a good storyteller, and he specializes in telling interesting stories about high-ranking people. A certain official was a henpecked man, and was chased into the street by his wife carrying a broom. A certain playboy was caught when the government was raiding casinos, and his parents felt that
He was embarrassed and beaten in the street while collecting the fine.
Where have the border soldiers heard these secrets?
Even when it got dark, everyone was still not satisfied and respected Zhang Tingxun as a top storyteller.
Zhang Tingxun also found happiness here. He liked to deal with the soldiers. There were not so many rules like in Nanjing. He was like a bird flying out of the cage.