"Master Li, are you going to move them into Dongsheng City to live?" Wu Liang, the chief manager of Ezo, asked tentatively. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Xiao shook his head: "No, if you just take in these more than 300 Ezo people like this, you will not be able to stand strong, let alone have an impact on other Ezo tribes." According to the intention of this official, it is necessary to recapture its tribal territory for this Ezo tribe, so that other Ezo tribes will be intimidated by the might of our army. At the same time, it is necessary to force them to sign an attached agreement, and use this as a breakthrough to provide a standard method for absorbing the various attached Ezo tribes in the future. ”

Li Xiao had made up his mind, so he personally met with the head of this tribe, expressed condolences, and held a banquet to entertain him.

The head of this tribe, seeing that he was so down-and-out, this Lord Li of the Ming Kingdom could still greet him so warmly, which was really a big surprise to him, and he and all the tribesmen were grateful in their hearts.

After the banquet, Li Xiao asked Wu Liang to be the representative of the Tiger Army, and according to Li Xiao's request, negotiated an attached agreement with the head of the tribe, and the specific treatment and related obligations attached to it were as follows:

1. After the Ezo indigenous tribe is attached to our army, if its tribe is attacked by other Ezo tribes, the Tiger Army will repel the invading tribe to ensure the safety of the lives and property of its tribesmen.

2. The attached subordinates can receive a certain amount of materials and commodities from the Tiger Army every year as a sign of honor and favor, as a special courtesy for them to attach themselves to the Chinese state.

3. In the future, if there is an increase in the number of attached tribes and conflicts between tribes, there must be no private fighting, and only officials from the LTTE are allowed to mediate the conflict, resolve the conflict, and punish the offenders.

4. Minor children of the Ezo tribe are required to come to the school in Dongsheng City to study, and during their study, they must not only learn the Han poetry and calligraphy culture, but also wear Han clothes and clothing, and be familiar with the Han lifestyle, etiquette and etiquette. All of the children's living expenses are financed by the LTTE, without a penny from their parents or the tribe.

5. Parents of Ezo children who come to Dongsheng City to study must not be stopped. If there is an obstruction, the tribal leader will punish his parents, and the LTTE will cut the reward given to his tribe.

4. Encourage Ezo indigenous women to intermarry with male Han immigrants, and anyone who marries an Ezo indigenous woman and Han immigrants will be rewarded by the LTTE for their families, and the tribal leader of the indigenous woman will also receive corresponding rewards. But in the future, the indigenous woman can only live with her Han husband on the LTTE territory, and is not allowed to return to the cottage.

5. If a tribal man is willing to give up his life in the mountains and wilderness, leave his original tribe, and pay taxes on the land cultivated in the territory of the Tiger Army, like the Han immigrants, the Department of Civil Affairs may give him the same treatment as the Han immigrants. They were given land to cultivate the land, such as farming implements, oxen, and seeds, all free of charge. He was also allowed to marry a Han woman. Their original tribal leaders can also receive certain rewards.

6. In order to ensure the implementation of this agreement, the LTTE will assign a civilian officer to each Ezo tribe to be stationed in its cottage to supervise the implementation of the agreement, ensure that the results of the agreement can be maintained, and enable effective long-term communication between the LTTE and the tribe.

Li Xiao originally thought that this agreement, which concealed his huge ambitions, might make the leader of the Ezo tribe very resistant, but unexpectedly, after the leader understood the content of the agreement, he immediately agreed.

Because, in the eyes of the leader of the Ezo natives, after attaching Li Xiao's Tiger Army, not only can they be protected, but they will also be rewarded every year, children can also receive free education, and the tribal population can get benefits whether they marry or move out, and there are so many benefits to be obtained, wouldn't it be stupid not to agree. As a result, the tribal leader was overjoyed and immediately agreed in unison.

The simple-minded indigenous head, of course, couldn't think of the real intention behind Li Xiao's agreement.

However, in Li Xiao's view, if this agreement is implemented in the whole Ezo in the future, it will only be a generation or two, and these Ezo natives who are still in a primitive state are estimated to be the same as the natives of Taiwan, and they will gradually become new members of the Han nationality.

Li Xiao firmly believes that only by naturalizing into a nation can we finally avoid the national separatist incident in which the people who are not of our race and whose hearts are bound to be different, as well as the disastrous war in which the country is in trouble and a certain religion is bound to be chaotic. The concept of 56 nationalities and 56 flowers that looks very beautiful can only be flowers in a greenhouse, which cannot withstand any wind and rain.

However, in later generations, because the concept and culture of the nation had already been formed, the authorities had their helplessness in acting in this way. In the late Ming Dynasty era in which Li Xiao lived, the national consciousness and national culture of the barbarian natives were far from being finalized, and Li Xiao could take advantage of the superiority and inclusiveness of Han culture to digest and absorb these natives who did not even have words, only some primitive and crude low-level religions, and let them truly become the bloodline branch of the Han family.

After the agreement was signed, Li Xiao sent Wu Zhuang, the commander of the Zhendong Battalion, to lead the Zhendong Battalion A General A Sentinel Horse, with the tribal leader as the guide, and used the powerful force like devastating to defeat another Ezo tribe that had just occupied the tribe's cottage in one fell swoop, so that the attached tribe could return to the original cottage smoothly.

It's funny to say that this tribal leader, after reoccupying the cottage, in order to express his gratitude to Li Xiao, actually picked ten women in the tribe that he thought were the most beautiful and gave them to Li Xiao as a thank you gift.

For this "beauty gift", Li Xiao accepted it with a smile, and then gave back rich gifts such as ironware, woolen velvet, and sea salt to the head of the tribe, and then he married these ten Ezo women to ten Han immigrants.

Li Xiao's national policy, which was both a deterrent and a lure of great profits, had a huge repercussion among the Ezo tribes, and soon achieved excellent results.

In just two months, four more small tribes that have been oppressed by the big tribes have asked to be attached. Of course, Li Xiao happily agreed to their needs.

On Ezo Island, when everything began to get on the right track, Li Xiao did not sit idle, but immediately seized the time and went north to expand Sakhalin Island.

Sakhalin Island, located in the outer northeast, has been Chinese territory since ancient times and was once the largest island in China. It was formerly known as bitter leaves, bitter vultures, bone wei or black dragon islands. The Russian translation is "Sakhalin", and in Japan it is called "Kita-Ezo" (referring to the north of Hokkaido) or "Birch". The island is now the largest in Russia and is under the jurisdiction of the Sakhalin region.

Sakhalin Island is located in the east of the Heilongjiang estuary, facing the Sea of Okhotsk to the east and north, the mainland across the Tatar Strait to the west, and Japan across the Soya Strait to the south. With an area of about 76,400 square kilometers, only slightly smaller than Hokkaido, the island is shaped like a slender fish, with more than 6,000 rivers and 1,600 lakes, and is now an important agricultural production base in Russia.

This beautiful and rich Sakhalin Island has been ruled directly or indirectly by Chinese dynasties such as the Tang Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty. On September 7, 1689 (the 28th year of the reign of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty), China and Russia signed the Treaty of Nebuchu, which established for the first time in a legal sense that the vast area of the Heilongjiang and Ussuri River basins, including Sakhalin Island, belonged to China's official territory.

In 1858 and 1860, aggressive Russia forced the poor and weak late Qing government to cede the entire Outer Manchuria, including Sakhalin, through a series of unequal treaties such as the Treaty of Aihui and the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing. Li Xiao in later generations, every time he read such a tragic modern history, he all regretted it and rushed to the crown.

In the Ming Dynasty, Sakhalin Island was called "Kuyi" and "Kuwu" by the Ming people, but Li Xiao didn't like this name and felt too sad, he still preferred the name of the Tang Dynasty, Sakhalin.

This is because, in the Tang Dynasty, the word Sakhalin was the name of the Feiyaka people on the island, which also belonged to the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River and was directly controlled by the Tang Dynasty, so the Tang Dynasty continued to use this expression, and this expression was reused in the Qing Dynasty and has been used as the official name of the island in China.

During the Ming Dynasty, Sakhalin Island was basically inhabited by two local indigenous peoples, the Jurchen and the Feiyaka people in the East China Sea, and only in the southern fringes, and a few Ezo people settled there. Among them, the Jurchens of the East China Sea were divided into ethnic minorities such as the Hezhe and Oroqen in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, while the Feiyaka people were renamed the Nivkh in modern times.

In 1409, the Ming Dynasty set up the Nuer Gandu command envoy in the old land of the Marshal of the Yuan Zhengdong (before that, the Ming Dynasty had set up 115 guards in the Heilongjiang River Valley), and in the same year, the Ming army conquered Kuwu, and Sakhalin Island entered the territory of the Ming Dynasty. After that, the local inhabitants of the island sent an official Nagong delegation to the Ming government.

In 1412, the Ming Dynasty issued seals to the local residents, and set up Nangharwei in the northern coastal area of Sakhalin Island, the Balo River Guard in the central Polonai River Basin, and the Ulie River Wei in the eastern Wulie River Valley.

In order to more effectively manage the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River and Sakhalin Island, the Ming Dynasty government has sent eunuchs to visit the slave area 10 times, and in 1413 on the basis of the original Guanyin Hall to establish the Yongning Temple, and also erected two Yongning Temple stone tablets engraved with the seal "Monument of Yongning Temple" (1413) and "Reconstruction of Yongning Temple" (1433) (the second monument was looted by Russia in 1904 and is now stored in the Vladivostok Museum) to record the management of the local affairs.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Wanli, a total of 384 guards, 24 offices, 7 grounds, 7 stations, and 1 village had been set up in the Nuergan area, including Sakhalin Island, and the specific control of Sakhalin Island was realized. Unfortunately, after the middle of the 15th century, the Ming Dynasty abolished the Nurgan Prefecture, Sakhalin Island and the entire northeastern region, and gradually lost control.

After the rise of the Jurchens in Jianzhou at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Feiyaka, Oroqen, Hezhe, Ainu and other ethnic groups on Sakhalin Island successively attached themselves to the Later Jin regime, paid tribute and taxes, and fought wars, becoming an important force in the rise of the Qing Dynasty.

In the eleventh year of Li Xiao's Chongzhen, the ruler of the Qing court, Huang Taiji, sent people to cross the sea every year to collect taxes from the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin Island, which were mainly hunted by furs, and if the tribe did not have enough furs to pay tribute, the sturdy men of the tribe were forced to go to the Qing Dynasty to serve as soldiers to offset their taxes. At the same time, in order to show his own leniency, Huang Taiji would also give these tribes some small favors as a catch, such as the "Qing Shilu", the items given to them include shoulderless collars, green cloth shirts, felt hats, leather boots, needles, threads, handkerchiefs, clothes, combs, grates, belts, fans and other items, so as to envelop these wild tribes on Sakhalin.

It's just that when the Qing court pretended to show the means of tenderness to these barbarian tribes, it also used cruel means to suppress and plunder, so that these barbarian tribes, in front of the Qing rulers, completely surrendered and did not dare to resist.

In December of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji sent Meler Ezhen Ye Keshu and two people from the Criminal Department to participate in politics, leading 600 elite soldiers, braved the wind and snow to Salhacha at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, and wiped out several local tribes that resisted and did not pay taxes. A total of 640 men were captured, 1,743 of their families, and many cattle, horses, and livestock, in the words of the "Records of Taizong", that is, "My division marched north, fought against the people in one drum, and returned triumphantly." ”

According to Li Xiao's plan, considering that Sakhalin Island is a long and narrow terrain from north to south, in order to better control and actually rule Sakhalin Island, he planned to build two large forts on Sakhalin Island, one south and one north, respectively named Sakhalin South Fort and Sakhalin North Fort.

Among them, the location of Sakhalin South Fort is the city of Tomari in today's Russia, and the location of Sakhalin North Fort is located in the original Ming Dynasty Nanghar Guard. These two areas, which are divided into north and south, have dangerous terrain, and are both coastal areas, which are very conducive to the support of Li Xiaojun's powerful naval division.

For these two castles, Li Xiao plans to design them as large castles with a circumference of four miles, which is about the same size as a small county town in Chinese mainland. And it is also the same as Dongsheng City, such as urn city, city tower, corner tower, gun emplacement, female wall, pheasant moat, etc., will also be all built. The walls of the two castles are also designed to be 15 meters high and 6 meters wide, thus greatly strengthening the castle's defense.

Of course, such a castle, because its function was mainly for military purposes, only the gates of the castle facing the sea to the west were opened to facilitate the transportation of goods by the sailors.

As for the development of Sakhalin, Li Xiao believes that the sooner it should be completed, the better. Because it is now the end of August, the land has not yet been completely frozen, if the construction is carried out in a hurry, it should still be completed quickly under the premise of sufficient manpower and material supply.

Li Xiao was anxious to build a castle on Sakhalin Island, and at that time he had a secret idea.

That is, at the beginning of next year, the imperial court will send another official to seize the island of Taiwan, which was the result of its own bloody war, and it will have to return to Shandong to prepare for a struggle against the imperial court. As a result, the development of Sakhalin Island will have to continue to be postponed, which Li Xiao absolutely does not want to see.

What's more, if the real historical process is followed, in September this year, the Qing army will enter the customs for the fourth time to invade and plunder. Although Li Xiao dealt a heavy blow to the Qing army in the war to aid Korea, and the time for the Qing army to enter the customs is likely to be postponed until next year, it is still very necessary to be vigilant and take precautions now.

Soon, under the supervision and command of Li Xiao's resolute and resolute work, on the third day of September in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, all preparations were completed. One hundred and 10 sailors, carrying 20,000 construction craftsmen, nearly 3,000 Japanese laborers, and more than 5,000 Han migrant laborers, loaded a large number of bricks, cement, bluestone, lime and other building materials newly produced on Ezo Island, and headed north to Sakhalin Island.