The person in charge of immigration heard Liu Yu tell the story of the British colonies who made a fortune from tobacco leaves.

But this story is placed here, and it is really difficult to replicate.

The beet seeds bought from Europe are still in the improvement stage, and the sugar content is not very high. It's okay to sell it locally, even if it is shipped to Japan, it is more expensive than the sugar sold to Japan from Fujian and Guangdong, and it is not profitable at all.

The whole of Vladivostok has almost become a dead end for trade.

As soon as the government stops investigating, the fledgling plantation agriculture here will soon degenerate into a subsistence small-scale peasant economy.

For the time being, there is nowhere to sell food and can only be absorbed by the population of official immigrants, ensuring the local logging industry to ensure the supply of oak at the Weihai shipyard.

This time, the head of the immigration has another task besides transporting people here.

Organize a group of 500 Shandong people and 100 people with cultivation experience in Vladivostok to immigrate to Ezo, which is later Hokkaido, Japan.

Although the people in charge of immigration are quite puzzled by this, Liu Yujie is in the whale sea, and the orders he gave can only be obeyed by these people, and there is no room for bargaining.

During these days of waiting for supplies, it is necessary to quickly gather people and follow the expedition ship to Ezo.

The first batch of 600 immigrants will have to rely on the grain from the Vladivostok granary to build houses there, and they may not be able to ensure food self-sufficiency until next year or the year after.

In addition to the population, a large number of muskets were also transported on board, and once they reached Ezo, they were to be all distributed.

First build a small village with a simple fortress structure, this time the cost of immigration is too high, if there is money to migrate in the direction of Vladivostok, the size of these 600 people can be moved about three times.

Orders are obeyed.

After a short period of repairing and replenishment, 100 farmers with cultivation experience at the same latitude recruited from local government farms boarded the ship.

Soon after, we arrived at Ezo, where there were almost no people. The climate here is quite warm, similar to Vladivostok.

A few knowledgeable people looked at the nearby plants and determined that the climate here was fully supportive of growing hardy rice and wheat.

A river estuary was chosen to land, trees were cut down, warehouses were built, and grain was transported over for storage.

"Eagle Sabo has a hobby of expanding the land. This money is spent...... It's not worth it. ”

"If you want me to say that the Northeast is not yet full of people, but it is really a loss to stuff people here. There is no cotton, indigo, or tobacco here, but only grain. If you grow food, you can't transport it to the capital where there is a shortage of food, because you can't make money, what is the picture? ”

The official in charge was puzzled, and the rest of the people did not understand either. If it is to alleviate the contradiction of more people and less land, the population of Henan and Shandong should be transported to the northeast, instead of going to such places.

If you talk about the border, there is no border to fight in this place.

You can only grow food, and you lose money. This grain was transported to Weihai bypassing North Korea and was much more expensive than buying grain from Siam.

I don't understand, this thing still has to be done. Fortunately, these people organized immigrants from Vladivostok and Heilongjiang estuaries and have rich experience in migrating at the same latitude.

After inspecting the local soil, it is relatively fertile.

This place is suitable for raising horses, but also suitable for raising cattle and sheep, Liu Yu told them that the future of Whale Sea agriculture will not be a small farmer who cultivates men and weaves women, but a half-cultivated farm agriculture.

The land is cultivated by large animals, and the fields are fertilized by the manure of large animals.

As for who the grain will be sold to after it is developed, this is not something they have to consider. One by one, I thought that maybe in seven or eight years, better beet varieties could be cultivated, and more hardy tobacco could be cultivated, and maybe there would be money to be made here.

But now, it can only be stationed here in the form of a military cantonment.

Soon after, a grain ship arrived from Vladivostok, accompanied by a small boat with fifty marines aboard.

This is the product of playing the edge ball, and it does not belong to the army that Liu Yu can't touch, but this edge ball is allowed by the emperor.

The lead officer, a lieutenant, disembarked from the ship and handed over to the person in charge who had already built a wooden house and a simple defense here, and unloaded four eight-pounder guns from the ship.

The person in charge of reclamation was a little confused, touched the body of the cannon, and said, "What does this mean?" Eagle Sabo wouldn't think that the people here needed artillery to defend themselves, right? These days I have also seen wild people here, with longer beards, not much different from those on Sakhalin. I am still using bows and arrows, and bows and arrows are not too sharp, I have a musket, what are I afraid of? ”

The lieutenant summoned the person in charge of reclamation to the hut and told him about the complicated situation here.

At this time, there was still a problem for immigration, that is, in the southern part of Hokkaido, there was also a Matsumae Domain.

Although the scope of control is not too large, and the actual scope of control is also limited, Japanese merchants are active in Hokkaido.

With a monopoly system similar to that of the East India Company, merchants could pay a sum of money and then monopolize trade with the Ainu within a certain range, and the rest of the people were not allowed to participate in it.

This is called the place invitation system, which can be regarded as a trade monopoly system, and can also be regarded as a tax package system in a certain sense.

There was a conflict between the local Ainu and the Japanese, and these muskets and cannons were not intended to defend against the Ainu, but against the Matsumae Domain.

Before the lieutenant arrived, he was taught a good lesson.

The strength of the Matsumae Domain was not strong, nominally 10,000 koku, but in fact the Japanese did not grow hardy rice at this time, and this 10,000 koku was false.

Fukuyama Castle in the Matsumae Domain had a population of five or six thousand at this time, and it was not five or six thousand households, but five or six thousand people.

The war against Japan was still in the period of strategic secrecy, so Liu Yu instructed the lieutenants stationed here to keep their attitude as low as possible.

If the Matsumae clan is willing to talk, then it can be discussed.

The tax system is not a package, and who is it not a package? The merchant will give you four hundred taels, and I will give you six hundred taels, and they will say that the merchant ship has sunk, and they will rest here for a while.

If you don't agree, stay here. When the other party comes to attack, they will be beaten away, and then they will talk.

Ying Sabo said that he will continue to immigrate here in the past few years. This year, your task is not to cultivate more, but to rely on the grain of Vladivostok to build a fortified city first. ”

"We will continue to migrate here next year, and we will start large-scale cultivation next year. There will also be an increase in the number of troops stationed. ”

"When we get a firm foothold, we will come to the merchants and do business with the Yi people here."

The person in charge of reclamation thought for a moment and said with a smile: "This has cost a lot of money." The Yi people here can sell deerskin and bear skins, or just some mountain goods. How much can you earn from this? Three or five thousand taels of silver a year is up to the sky. Although mosquitoes are meat no matter how small they are, if there are 300 garrisons in this place, they will be paid 35,000 a year of silver. Is this place worth it? ”

The lieutenant shook his head and said, "What do I care if it's worth it?" I only obey orders. If you spend money, you must have a deep meaning. Just do it. ”

Liu Yu has a deep meaning for such an arrangement.

The driving force of the first industrial revolution was coal and iron.

The most suitable coal mine in Japan is in Hokkaido. The rest are scattered on the island of Kyushu, which is within the control of the Dashun Navy and is within the range of attack at any time.

Spending a lot of money to immigrate to Hokkaido is not to make money, but just to lock Japan up, to form a tight chain, and to lock up any possibility of Japan's development.

In the pre-coal and iron era, large timber was needed to build ships.

There is no teak and cypress in Japan, and there is not enough oak in Japan that is not suitable for shipbuilding.

North American oak in France and England; The Netherlands is the capital of Southeast Asian teak; Spain has Mesoamerican wood; Dashun has wood from the Northeast and the Whale Sea.

As long as the sea route is locked in Hokkaido, even if Japan wakes up and wants to build ships, it will not be able to catch up overnight.

In order to make up for the navy, Liu Yu prepared many years in advance, and the early drying of these timbers and the opening of the Vladivostok route made Dashun have raw material reserves for dumplings.

As for the possible first industrial revolution, the occupation of Hokkaido is to lock up Japan's best open-pit coal mine, so that he cannot develop it even if he wants to.

As long as you want to develop, you must start a war against Daeshun and seize the coal mines of Hokkaido and the iron mines of North Korea, and there is no chance of relying on the resources in the land under your own control to develop.

This is a dilemma.

No war, no resources.

If you go to war, you can't fight because you don't have resources and you don't have to develop.

Two chains are locked, and there is no chance of being chased and surpassed for at least a hundred years.

As long as the hydraulic boring machine on the Weihai side is done well and the steam engine is improved, the Hokkaido region can be used as a heavy industrial base in the Whale Sea area, forming a trade circle from the east coast of Korea, northern Japan, and the Whale Sea to the mouth of the Heilongjiang River.

At this time, the first garrison to emigrate was just to stock up on food for future wars, familiarize themselves with the terrain, and get in touch with the local Ainu people in advance.

In the war against Japan, the emperor was told that there would be no garrison and no direct jurisdiction, but after the real fight, a place near Nagasaki would definitely have to be leased, and Hokkaido would have to get it.

Just like the Western Regions, if you only calculate the economic account now, you will definitely lose money.

Reclamation in such a baseless place is much more expensive than Vladivostok. Vladivostok was cultivated, at least at the beginning with some local population, and it was able to provide a little food. Starting from scratch here, it naturally costs a lot of money.

Fortunately, Hokkaido is one of the four major fishing grounds in the world, and it is quite simple to starve to death. However, in order to lay the foundation for agriculture as a heavy industry hub in the Whale Sea, the east coast of Korea, and northern Japan, the amount of money to be invested cannot be based on starvation.

As expected, less than two months after the first settlers landed, the anomaly was discovered by Japanese traders who were trading here.

Hurriedly returning to Fukuyama Castle and reporting the situation he had encountered, Matsumae Shihiro, the lord of the Matsumae Domain, was suddenly a little overwhelmed.

According to the system, the Matsumae clan divided these Ezo lands under the jurisdiction of the retainers, and the retainers learned about the land.

Hokkaido did not produce grain at this time, and the 10,000 koku of the Matsumae Domain was empty, and it was basically supported by trade. The Matsumae family had a keen sense of smell, and first sided with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and then on the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and stood in line accurately, so they have always monopolized the Ezo trade.

Theoretically, only the retainers of the Matsumae Domain were allowed to trade with the Ezo people.

It's just that the retainers are not good at this, so they subcontract it to the merchants.

Now there is such a situation in the territory of the subcontracted merchants, and the Matsumae Domain has to take care of it, but how to manage it has become a problem.