"Where have you gone the furthest?" Shao Shude asked curiously in the Jiaotai Hall.
"Your Majesty, the sea conditions over there are bad, there is heavy fog from time to time, and it is hard to know the direction. When the southeast wind blows strongly, sometimes we get lost..." Captain Xu Xiong, who returned from sailing in the Sea of Japan, replied: "Waiting for a while
When the fog cleared, the yaw was quite severe. Once we were very close to the land, it was just luck that we didn't hit the rocks."
Shao Shude nodded. The place where warm and cold currents meet is prone to heavy fog. According to their sailing route along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula, they should have encountered a tributary of the Thousand Islands Cold Current and a tributary of the Japan Warm Current.
In this place where warm and cold currents meet, the seawater moves violently, stirring up nutrients on the seabed, so that various plankton have sufficient nutrients. And if there are more plankton, the fishery resources will naturally be very rich.
"We later landed on that land..." Xu Xiong continued. "Is it an island, a peninsula or a continent?" Shao Shude interrupted and asked. "Maybe it's a peninsula." Xu Xiong was silent for a moment.
, replied.
Shao Shude was noncommittal.
How can you be so sure without thoroughly exploring and delineating the coastline? Historically, the Russians thought that Sakhalin was a peninsula. It was not until Nevelskoy carefully inspected it in 1848 that he finally confirmed that it was a large island.
At that time, there were a large number of Japanese colonists in the southern part of the island, and many temples were built. The development was organized by the Matsumae clan, the daimyo of Hokkaido. Japanese fishermen had been fishing there for decades, and even named Sakhalin "Katajima" - they
Its island nature is very clear.
One more thing, Sakhalin is a large island. The Manchu Qing Dynasty only sent 400 soldiers to the island in birch bark boats and animal skin boats once during the Houjin period. Since then, they have never been there again. Later, the Japanese colonized the southern part of the island.
, the Russians colonized the north, and even Americans came to hunt seals, sea lions, and walruses, but the Manchus knew nothing about it.
It was only when it was ceded that I was shocked to realize that the Japanese and Russians had already carved up the island for a long time. Tsarist Russia had already exiled countless prisoners, built many colonies and towns, and even had basic handicraft industries. They were just here to make up for it.
It's just a cession procedure, which is really slow.
"What's on the peninsula?" Shao Shude asked.
"The local natives want to exchange gold for the hatchets we carry," Xu Xiong said.
Pugu Chengen signaled, and two young Huangmen brought a few pieces of gold on a tray. The purity of the gold was very low, and it was actually nugget gold.
Shao Shude curiously picked up a piece, looked at it carefully, and said: "The natives don't know how to mine and smelt, so this gold must have been picked up. Maybe they know that this thing is useful, maybe they have come into contact with outsiders, could they be Bohai people? Or maybe they are from Bohai?"
Japanese, Silla people?”
"During the pre-Tang Dynasty, the sea was called the Big Sea. Bohae people and Silla people called it Bohai." Xu Xiong said: "I hired several guides in Baekje, and they all said that there would be ships going there during the Silla period.
Passing through Tokyo, the Bohai Sea country, Nanjing is closer, and there are more ships going there. The island is rich in fish, furs, gold and other things. The natives have cave dwellers who live in wooden houses built with birch bark. I also brought them with me
A few natives came back..."
"Oh? There are also natives?" Shao Shude was very interested and immediately said: "Let them come in." Soon someone from the palace invited the natives.
Shao Shude sat on the dragon chair and looked carefully. Two people, an old man and a young man, probably a grandfather and grandson, came in. At the palace attendant's signal, they saluted nervously.
"No need to be polite, please sit down." Shao Shude waved his hand, stood up, walked to the two of them, and took a look. The old man was very cautious, with his head lowered, and he did not dare to look at him.
Shao Shude understands very well that after experiencing the rain, snow, wind and frost of society, the edges and corners of people have been smoothed away, even for "savages". It may be the first time for him to see such a magnificent palace, and he is even more frightened. He almost doesn't know how.
It was done. The young man was still a bit wild, his eyes widened and he looked at Shao Shude curiously.
"Can they speak Mandarin?" Shao Shude asked.
"No. I don't even understand Bohai Chinese very well." Xu Xiong replied.
"How did you meet them? Why are you willing to follow them to Daxia?" Shao Shude asked again.
"I met him while fishing at the beach." Xu Xiong said, "I thought the saint might be interested.
So he invited them back. "Please? Could it be kidnapping? Shao Shude thought to himself and asked for details carefully.
It turned out that Xu Xiong and others had to abandon a lot of cargo, including supplies, because they encountered strong winds and waves, the ship was damaged, and the water leaked seriously.
After landing, they didn't see a single person. They thought it was a desert island, so they started fishing. Miraculously, they didn't hang anything on the hooks at all, they just went down bare and caught one fish after another.
I caught a lot of squid and saved my life at a critical moment.
The squid, on the other hand, bled and ate nothing, so it was pulled up by the hook, dried and hung on the deck, becoming a life-sustaining thing for the sailors.
Xu Xiong even brought back some dried squid. After Shao Shude looked at them, he gave them to the palace officials.
"Either Feyaka or Oroqen." Shao Shude looked at the two natives and asked them to reward them with some property, then sat back on the throne. Xu Xiong was a little confused.
He didn't know who this person was at all. It seemed that there was no such tribe in Liaodong. Perhaps, only saints like saints who had received divine orders from heaven would know. Thinking of this, he bowed his head humbly.
"Xu Qing, if what I expected is correct, this is a big island." Shao Shude said, "In your opinion, what is the value of this island?"
"Your Majesty, after I docked, I cut wood and repaired the ship. I stayed there for more than a month. I only felt that there were many bears, deer, and fish on the island, and there were very few people." Xu Xiong replied.
"During the fishing season in July, I hurriedly found some nets and caught thousands of big fish in a few days."
"This fish is huge. I brought several buckets back. I have never seen anything like this in the coastal waters of the Central Plains. Standing on a hill, overlooking the sea, the sea is full of dense schools of fish, rushing into the river on the island.
It broke all our fishing nets."
"I also hunted a bear."
"There are many wild deer on the island, and they are not afraid of people at all. They flock in groups, and their hooves sound like thunder. One deer weighs more than a thousand kilograms." "By the way, there are many seals on the beach, but unfortunately I haven't caught them yet."
Xu Xiong talked a lot eloquently, and Shao Shude was even more certain that this was Sakhalin Island.
The reason why it was once thought to be a peninsula is because the northern end of the island is really close to the mainland, with the narrowest point only a few kilometers away. Moreover, the water in this place called the Tartar Strait is very shallow, and it may have been connected to the mainland in ancient times.
.
In the later Soviet era, idiots once wanted to fill in this shallow strait to prevent the cold current from going south. According to their calculations, if this strait was blocked, the average annual temperature in the Far East would increase by 2-3 degrees, which would be very effective.
Obviously. But in the end it was not implemented, maybe because the cost was too high, or there weren't many people in the Far East, so it wasn't worth it.
"Opposite this island is Anbian on the Bohai Sea, Anyuan Second Mansion, right?" Shao Shude said: "What is the situation there? Have you ever inquired about it?"
"We once sent people ashore, but within three days, they were discovered by the Bohai people. The thieves gathered hundreds of horses and searched the mountains to round them up. We had no choice but to return to the ship." Xu Xiong replied.
Shao Shude nodded again.
In fact, they had a very rich experience during their trip to Beihai.
It can be said that sailing along the coastline does not require much navigation skills and is much lower than the requirements for deep-sea navigation. It may sound like a simple task, but they have strong subjective initiative and full spirit of adventure.
Despite the pressure, he took the initiative, went ashore many times, bravely contacted the natives, and obtained valuable first-hand information.
"After I conquer the Bohai Sea, do I need to occupy this island?" Shao Shude asked.
Xu Xiong hesitated and said, "Your Majesty, there is a cold current on this island, so it may not be very warm in winter." "There is also a warm current." Shao Shude added, "So the southern half of the island is warm and the northern half is cold."
"Yes." Xu Xiong said: "However, I do not recommend occupying this island. The people in the Central Plains may not be able to adapt to the bitter cold weather there."
"Hmm." Shao Shude thought for a while and then asked: "What do you think if we just build a town at the southern end of the island, and send people to station it in the summer to help repair fishing nets and boats, and then withdraw after the fishing season is over?"
"Your Majesty is wise." Xu Xiong praised: "This island may be frozen for several months a year, and it is indeed not suitable for people to stay in winter. But there are really many fish. There are also many seals. I am waiting for more.
I saw a whale once, and if it were just a summer fishing spot, it would be great.”
More than 80% of whales live in cold seas.
Before humans began to hunt them aggressively, there were no fewer whales in the Arctic than in the Antarctic. But who made the northern hemisphere the core of human civilization? Penguins were all extinct in the mid-18th century, and only those in the southern hemisphere were left, not to mention whales?
In later generations, 80% of whales lived in the Antarctic waters south of the westerly belt in the southern hemisphere. The local fishery resources were rich and could support a huge group of whales. Only when winter in the southern hemisphere arrives and the Antarctic freezes, the whales will move north to enter relatively warm waters.
Whales in the Northern Hemisphere actually follow this pattern. There is a reason why Svalbard has become Europe's whaling mecca. "Seals, sea lions, walruses, fur seals, beavers..." Shao Shude placed his index finger lightly on the table and thought silently.
If it is just used as a fishing and whaling base, there is actually no cost.
It is the most cost-effective way to set up a temporary repair shop to help repair, dry fishing nets, process seafood, then sort them and ship them for shipment.
But the premise of all this is that you conquer the Bohai Kingdom, and then use the densely populated Xingkai Lake grain-producing area as the core, and build shipyards in Dingli Prefecture and Dingyuan Prefecture in the east to support this kind of fishing activity - which is gratifying
What's more, this is completely offshore fishing. You don't even need to go to the sea. You can catch a lot of fish on the shore in a year.
There are thousands of rivers on Sakhalin Island, and a considerable number of them contain salmon migration and spawning. Some freshwater rivers on the nearby South Kuril Islands are also the main production areas for humpback salmon.
During the Soviet period, the Russians caught more than 10,000 tons of humpback salmon in the rivers of Sakhalin Island every year.
In the freshwater river on Etorofu Island, even in years with low yields, more than 8,000 tons can be caught. The yield is astonishingly high!
Eight thousand tons can be caught in the freshwater river inland of a small island. What is the concept? It is equivalent to the meat production of hundreds of thousands of sheep.
There is no doubt that this is a huge wealth. And it does not require you to invest much capital at all. Build some icehouses in advance, catch fish for a summer, and then call it a day. In late autumn, when the north wind picks up, you can transport the fish back to your country.
, smooth sailing along the coastline, no need for advanced skills.
This kind of natural sea pasture is harvested once a year. Isn’t it delicious?
"Xu Qing, you will sail again next year. This time, bring more ships and explore more thoroughly." Shao Shude said.