In late September, five large inland river boats full of passengers traveled eastward from Heilongjiang City and finally arrived at the town of Khabarovsk, located on the east bank of the confluence of Heilongjiang and Ussuri Rivers.
"Du~~du~~"
"Attention all recruits! Get off the boat! Once ashore, stand in line and don't move around!" Following the officer's loud order, more than 200 recruits on the five boats began to disembark and line up.
This was the first batch of new soldiers that Sheng Haizhou recruited from Heilongjiang City to Humar in response to Wang Yuanfang's order, that is, the Sauron soldiers. A small number of them were wounded soldiers left behind after the Qing army retreated from Heilongjiang City.
, after being treated by the military doctors of the Northern Navy, they have basically recovered and become stronger and stronger again.
Wen Dai, an Ewenki recruit, first checked his backpack and confirmed that there was a lot of stuff inside, and then buttoned up the bag. The people in front had not finished walking, and the boat canopy was a little messy; Wen Dai waited for his comrades around him to get up.
, then he put his backpack on his shoulders and stood up.
When he walked out of the boat covered by oilcloth, snowflakes fell on Wen Dai. But Wen Dai didn't feel cold at all. Compared with the distant upper reaches of Heilongjiang, he felt that it was much warmer here.
When Wen Dai stepped onto the pier, the bustling crowds of people immediately came into view. The noisy scene made the recruits dizzy. In the past, apart from going to Heilongjiang City to pay the head tax every year, they had never seen any place with so many people.
people.
"This, this is so lively!"
“Let’s walk together~~”
The newly formed recruits, led by the officers, maintained a relatively neat formation and went to the military station two miles east of the pier to rest and eat. In the afternoon, they had to take a boat to continue south; along the Ussuri River
Go south of the Yangtze River, cross Xingkai Lake, pass through the Niyarimbila River, transfer to the Lefu River, and finally transfer to land transportation to reach the training base in Beihai Town.
People on the road saw hundreds of people from the Northern Navy lined up, and they all got out of the way. They looked at these people who were eating "imperial food" with envy and commented on them. Among these people, there were Hezhe people, Oroqen people, and Xibo people.
, Feyaka people, Han people, and even a few islanders with moon-shaped heads.
Li Bi, a former exiled prisoner from the Qing court and now the clerk of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Beihai Town in Heilongjiang City, serves as the Manchu translator accompanying the team. He wears a grass-green cold-proof suit without armbands and nameplates, and a green cotton hat with drooping ear protection.
He strolled behind the team.
In a tavern, several Xibo people wearing animal skin costumes were listening to the opera coming from the electric speakers, babbling and imitating it. After hearing this, Li Bi smiled and couldn't help but shake his head and start humming.
.
"...I also sent someone to inquire, and after I learned that Sima led the troops, he headed west. It was not because Ma Su had no plan or talent, but because the generals were at odds with each other that he lost the street pavilion."
Unlike those new recruits, Li Bi was just on the road this time, working part-time as a translator, and was temporarily recruited by the army. Since he had cooperated with Guo Dalu in the governance of Heilongjiang City in an orderly manner this year, Li Bi was allowed to go to Beihai Town after Guo Dalu applied for approval from the civil affairs.
He went to the Central Hospital to perform scar surgery to remove the tattoo on his cheek.
When he received the notice, Li Bi burst into tears and kowtowed three times in the direction of Beihai Town to show his gratitude to Zhao Xin. He was finally able to get rid of the shame that had accompanied him for many years, and no one would stare at him in the future.
His cheeks seemed to have changed.
At this moment, his face was no longer as gloomy as before. As he walked, he looked at the shops and stalls on both sides of the road with a smile, and he was in a very good mood.
Li Bi heard from Guo Dalu that the emerging town where he is now will be Beihai Town's most important land and water hub in the lower reaches of Heilongjiang, connecting the upper and lower reaches of Heilongjiang and the Wusuli River. At the same time, the planned railway will also be built in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River.
Construction was carried out on the other side, leading to the city of Aihui.
A road paved with steel! When Li Bi heard Guo Dalu's general description, he was immediately fascinated and really wanted to see the day it was completed as soon as possible.
Since various supporting factories related to the railway must be built in Heilongjiang City and Boli Town in advance, the equipment and large quantities of engineering materials produced from Beihai Town must first be transported to Boli Town, and part of them must be transferred to Heilongjiang City. Therefore,
There is an endless stream of cargo planes and sailing ships coming and going from south to west every day.
Especially now that winter is approaching, the task of transporting materials is even more urgent. In addition, with the border residents coming from all over the world to trade, the current busyness of Heilongjiang's waterway traffic has almost caught up with the Grand Canal. On the pier, there are rows of flat-bottomed sailboats waiting to load goods.
After it is full of goods, it will make a "chugging" motor sound and head west.
Starting last year, after the Northern Navy occupied Ninggu Pagoda and Sanxing City, the waterway and land transportation between the Qing court and the entire middle and lower reaches of Heilongjiang and the Ussuri River Basin were completely interrupted. This also meant that the Manchu Qing implemented a plan in the outer northeast.
The "wulin reward" system that lasted for more than 150 years has collapsed.
Although Shangwulin is gone, the "barter" trade must continue, otherwise the border residents in the entire middle and lower reaches of Heilongjiang will find it difficult to survive. Therefore, the Manchu Qing's annual "large financial subsidies" to the border residents were transferred to Beihai Town.
On the head.
In June last year, the trade department headed by Shen Jingdan sent dozens of clerks, escorted by the Northern Navy, carrying a large amount of supplies to Deleng'enmu City on the shores of Qiji Lake. Through barter trade, they provided goods to rural tribes in the northeast at low prices.
A large amount of food, cloth, satin, cotton and needles and threads that they urgently needed were sold.
At this time, the border residents of various surnames and villages finally let go of their worries. They still presented items to Beihai Town in the form of tribute, hoping to receive rewards.
However, to the surprise of the border residents everywhere, the "official officials" of Beihai Town made it clear that from now on they would no longer implement the method of tribute and rewards, but would adopt barter and fair transactions. The Beihai Trading Company under the Ministry of Trade purchased the goods brought by the border residents
of various mountain goods, and then sell various daily necessities to the border residents.
Because Liu Sheng's wife was from Hezhe, the villagers from Balke Village easily accepted this method and quickly spread it among the border residents. However, what frustrated some border residents was that the sea they used to pay tribute to
No one wants Dongqing anymore.
However, what surprised the border residents was that the goods that King Zhao gave them through trade were actually more than what the Manchus had given them before.
In addition, the Feyaka and Ainu people who originally came all the way from Kuye Island for the rewards of food and brocade came because Beihai Town already had many strongholds on Kuye Island for trade.
There are very few people anymore.
Moreover, every time the Thor and the Thunder went to Kuye Island to refuel, they would bring a batch of living supplies to supply the villages and towns along the way. Therefore, the Kuhafiyaka and the Ainu people could easily exchange supplies from those villages and towns.
You can get the goods you need. You can also barter. If you don't have the goods, you can do odd jobs for a few days, dig coal, cut down some trees, or help build roads. You can make money no matter what.
What surprised the border residents the most was that the goods provided by Beihai Town actually included a magical "white iron pot". This pot can be used to stew food just like an iron pot, and it is also very light. It is different from the shabby ones at home.
And a heavy iron pot is a hundred times better! A hundred times!
In the past "wulin reward" trade, the Qing government was extremely strict on the export of ironware. Except for needles, no ironware would be rewarded to border residents. In fact, the Manchu Qing hoped to maintain stability in the outer northeast through this method.
To prevent a fire in the backyard. You must know that Nurhaci and Huang Taiji massacred too many border residents in their campaign to conquer the wild Jurchen tribes in the outer northeast.
Zhao Xin also did not want these border residents to recast weapons after obtaining iron tools, so he introduced aluminum products. In another time and space, a ton of aluminum plates only cost more than 17,000 yuan. If you buy hundreds of tons just to cast a large pot,
It is estimated that it can be used for decades without any problem.
People from the trade department announced to border residents at last year's "Outer Northeast Trade Conference" that next year's trade conference will be held in Khabarovsk Town. In order to facilitate everyone's travel, a special line will be opened from Deleng to Khabarovsk Town.
The inland river passenger ship can arrive in one day along the river and take two days to return.
So starting from June this year, every day, border residents carrying large and small bags of goods boarded the roaring inland river ships to barter in Khabarovsk. More often, they drove fast horses and independent boats filled with goods.
The wooden boat came here.
In the two months from June to August, the river bank of Khabarovsk was filled with densely packed canoes and fast boats. At the peak, more than 10,000 people gathered inside and outside the town, and the event was unprecedented.
At that time, the bonfires on the river bank lit up the sky at night, and the Hezhe people's Imakan singing came one after another, which was as lively as the singing competition in the later movie "Liu Sanjie". Zhao Xin, who was on the front line of Xiaobai Mountain at the time, heard about it and was leisurely
I was fascinated and decided to go and see it next year.
Although winter is coming soon, in the newly built large market in Khabarovsk Town, there are still people from Oroqen, Hezhe, and Feyaka who came from the lower reaches of Heilongjiang Province selling the goods they brought, hoping to sell well.
After paying the price, exchange for some daily necessities for the winter.
There are pine nuts, hazelnuts, mushrooms and other mountain products picked from the mountains in autumn; there are processed fish feathers, dried fish, various kinds of meat jerky, as well as leather products and fish bone pendants made by the skillful hands of Hezhe women;
There are rare pearls as big as soybeans and as small as rice grains, wild ginseng, deer skins, bear skins, fox skins, badger skins, etc., a dazzling array.
Some of these commodities will be purchased by Beihai trading companies and transported to Fuldan City or Beihai Town for sale, while some will be exchanged among the border residents.
The "Beihai Trading Company" in the big market in Khabarovsk is the largest local entity engaged in private trade. It sells food needed by border residents, oil, salt, soy and vinegar, needles and thread, various cotton cloths, silks and satins, aluminum kitchenware, fishing nets and fishing lines, and other products.
Steel hardware tools produced in Beihai Town.
Don't worry, steel is different from iron. The border people have the ability to melt iron, but they are powerless against steel.
Because of this, the trading company also sells well-made steel daggers and feather arrows with steel arrowheads. Although many border hunters are greedy, they must be residents who have settled in this town to buy them; when purchasing,
Not only does it need to be vouched for, but it also needs to be registered so that the local security police can come to check from time to time.
In addition to the big market, the most popular one among the border residents is the medical point opened by the Beihai Town Central Hospital in Khabarovsk. Now the doctors and nurses in Beihai Town have been spread by word of mouth among the border residents and are known as the "white angels"; those who used to
Difficult-to-treat wind-cold diseases and external injuries can be cured by going to Khabarovsk. Many young sons of border residents have been saved from premature death because of the medicine in Beihai Town.
As a result, more and more border residents settled around the town of Boli, and large and small settlements appeared on both sides of the Yangtze River.
As the number of people increased, the security situation became more and more complicated. Conflicts between border residents occurred frequently, and even bloody fights and homicide cases began to occur, which caused a huge headache for the local security police. Faced with this situation, the security police
The General Administration not only dispatched manpower from Beihai Town, but also selected honest and dedicated border residents from local households to join the security police; at the same time, it adopted the Qing Dynasty's approach and implemented the "Baojia and Sitting System".
So in the past two months, the number of fights has finally decreased. No matter what, legal education has a long way to go!
Two days later, the motorboat fleet transporting the recruits finally arrived at the dock on the upper reaches of the Lefu River. From here, the recruits would transfer to cars and head to the Northern Navy training base more than 100 kilometers away.
After Beihai Town acquired Ning Guta and Hunchun, Zhao Xin considered moving the training base to Jurgen City to make room for Zhao Liang's factory area.
In early September, the engineering survey team under the Civil Affairs Bureau went to 25 kilometers west of Jurgen City to survey and select a site for the new training base. The entire project is expected to be completed in the year after next, and by then the new training base will occupy an area of
It covers an area of 400 square kilometers and can accommodate up to 10,000 people for training at the same time.
This year, Beihai Town expanded the scale of the salt factory and opened a new hardware factory, a casting factory, an ordnance repair shop, and a workshop for imitating walking tractor motors. In addition, in order to produce imitation rifled guns to provide to "servants"
"Military", the military factory must expand its scale and open a "fire hat" production workshop.
To put it simply, the manufacturing of flash caps does not just require mercury fulminate, as some people think. The detonating powder of a flash cap contains mercury fulminate, dextrin lead nitride, tetrazene, etc.
Each ingredient has strict requirements on its ratio, density, particle size and dosage. Its ignition effect determines the ballistic performance, and the reactants generated after the explosion cannot harm the weapon.
After the sample is produced, various tests must be conducted on temperature and humidity, sensitivity, ignition ability, and even transportation vibration. The presence of mercury fulminate will not make everything smooth.
What if the best ratio is not researched and tested and the soldiers explode while carrying it? This is not something that can be done by a team of Taoist priests who are good at alchemy!
After the recruits disembarked from the ship and landed, the first thing they saw was a dozen grass-green covered trucks parked a hundred meters away. These recruits from the upper reaches of Heilongjiang had never seen a truck before, and they saw the front of the truck.
There are no horses or oxen, which is very strange.
"Attention everyone! Everyone is here, get on the bus in classes! There are two classes in each car!"
"Yes!" After Li Bi finished translating the order, more than 200 Ewenki and Daur recruits responded in simple Mandarin.
The Northern Navy had more rules than the previous Manchu Qing court. The recruits only underwent preliminary formation training in Heilongjiang City. They were required to be able to answer orders in Mandarin and were not allowed to say "嗻".
After Wen Dai and his companions climbed into the carriage of the truck, a group of recruits began to whisper among themselves, trying to figure out what kind of animals the truck was pulled by.
A recruit named Rapini sitting next to Wen Dai said confidently: "It's either a horse or an ox, what else can it be?"
Wen Dai rubbed the back of his head and said, "But there's not even a shaft at the front of the car."
"Everyone, sit tight! The car is about to leave!" Li Bi shouted loudly in Manchu according to the officer's order. In fact, he didn't understand how to drive the car, but he had only heard it once on the ship.
What do you mean by "gas car"?
It's so fresh. What does breath have to do with the car? Thinking of this, Li Bi couldn't help blowing at the snowflakes in the sky. Then he followed the instructions and sat in the passenger seat of the second truck and closed the door.
"Fasten your seat belt!"
"What?" Li Bi turned to look at the driver, confused. So the driver shook his head helplessly and leaned over to help him buckle it.
"Boom, boom, boom!" The roar of the truck engine finally interrupted Li Bi's random thoughts. As the car body swayed slightly, Li Bi's upper body leaned back, and the truck slowly started moving.
"What, what's the point of this?!" Li Bi's chin almost hit his feet, and he turned his head back and forth to look around.
"Sit tight and don't move!" The driver was also Bei Haijun. He just said it and ignored it. He had seen too many scenes like this. When he first learned to drive, he was so scared that he peed his buttocks.
flow.
The ones who were more demented than Li Bi at this time were the Sauron recruits. They were crowded at the rear of the carriage where they were, staring dumbfounded at the roaring truck behind them that had no cattle or horses.
Ten minutes after the convoy hit the road, the speed gradually increased. Suddenly, a group of silly roe deer suddenly jumped out in front of the first truck. The driver suddenly braked, and the trucks that followed also braked suddenly. Boom~~ People in the carriage suddenly turned upside down.
, the recruits who were standing looking at the strange things suddenly fell down in the carriage.
"Ouch!"
"Rapini, you crushed me to death!"
"Wen Dai! Move your butt!"
Li Bi didn't fare well either. The violent braking force caused him to rush forward, and his chest was strangled with pain. If it hadn't been for the wide green belt, his forehead would have been smashed against the windshield.