After pondering the pros and cons, Marin was surprised to find that using Sauron's mercenaries to help him conquer the North American jungle was much better than eating Cossacks.

The Cossacks are the kings of the steppes, and their combat effectiveness in the jungle is actually average. Later Cossacks were able to defeat the Saurons in Siberia by the sharpness of muskets and the scare of firearms.

Although the Saurons are brave, most of them have never seen the market. The Sauron people in the Heilongjiang region are okay, they have fought many battles with the Manchu Qing and are well-informed. And the Sauron people in Siberia and the barbarians in the north of the mountains have no knowledge at all, and even the barbarian Jurchens call them savages, which shows how barbaric and ignorant they are. And the savage and foolish are not afraid of your fierceness, because they are more fierce than you. However, the muskets, which they had never seen before, made loud noises, stopped them. So, a few hundred Cossacks were able to conquer a large territory in Siberia, but on the territory of the Qing Dynasty, the Cossacks of Tsarist Russia were repulsed in Yaksa.

Many times, the Cossacks of Tsarist Russia actually hid in strong fortresses such as Yakutsk, using muskets and artillery to counter the counterattacks of the savages of the Northern Mountains, rather than defeating the locals head-on in the jungle.

However, if the Saurons serve themselves, they must be the one who has firearms, and they can completely abuse the natives. In addition, they can ride Sauron horses, can quickly travel through the forest, and can also speed up the process of conquering the North American jungle.

At present, it is said that there are more than 100,000 Saurons. If you count the northern mountain savages further north of Sauron and the savage Jurchens in the east, there are hundreds of thousands. Moreover, in addition to the Saurons, Marin can also hire the wild Jurchens who are close to the sea to the east. These people Marin are not hired, and in a few decades they will be captured by Nurhachi and sent to death as cannon fodder, so it is better to hire them to help him clean up the North American jungle.

Marlin planned to bring in horses adapted to the jungle when hiring the Saurons, so that the Saurons could conquer the North American jungles.

Don't have more, as long as you can hire a few thousand Sauron jungle cavalry from the Sauron Department, plus the help of Hai Dongqing, it won't be too easy to abuse the hundreds of thousands of Indian natives in the North American jungle.

As for whether the Saurons would get out of control, Marin was not worried. As long as the people of Sauron do not change their habit of drinking spirits, they will not be able to do without themselves. After all, the North Sea Kingdom has a very large number of Erguotou, which is very attractive to the Saurons......

Marin believed that the Manchus would be able to control the Saurons for three hundred years without problems, and that they would not have problems themselves.

……

In addition, in addition to recruiting Sauron mercenaries, Marin also planned to take the opportunity to set up a castle on the site of the former Yongning Temple as an important trading base.

What is Marlin going to trade in such a bitter cold land? The famous mink, of course! Of course, wild ginseng is also a trade target.

How precious is mink? In a place where prices are very low in the Ming Dynasty, mink can be sold for more than a dozen taels or even dozens of taels of silver. In Europe, mink is even more expensive.

In Europe, a good ordinary mink can be sold for 100 shillings, or about 20 gold coins. According to the current European gold and silver exchange ratio, 20 gold coins are about 22.9 taels of silver, almost 23 taels of silver, which is more expensive than the price of the Ming Dynasty.

However, this is not much expensive. Because, since the Ming Dynasty lost its actual control over Nurgan Dusi, the price of mink has risen rapidly.

Because of the difficulty of connecting with the Tohoku region, the price of mink has risen very high. However, according to Bai Gezhi and others, mink fur is very common in the Sauron region. A small tribe of two or three hundred households can hunt more than 1,000 mink skins a year. In the entire Sauron region, it is estimated that tens of thousands of mink skins are produced in a year.

However, most of these minks can only be idle because there is no way to sell them to the Ming Dynasty. Alternatively, they were sold at low prices to the Mongol nobles or the neighboring Hercynian Jurchens in exchange for supplies such as horses and bows and arrows.

As for the relationship between the Jurchens and the Saurons, it's called a complicated one......

In fact, the Jurchens also relied on hunting mink to trade with the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong, and the main source of mink in the Ming Dynasty was the supply of the Jurchens in the horse market in Liaodong.

However, the Liaodong Horse Market mainly collects horses as national strategic materials. At this time, the Liaodong horse market was still under the official control of the Ming court, and had not yet become a place for private free trade in the Wanli period. Therefore, because of the rigid mechanism, the government-run horse market only accepts horses, and often restricts the purchase of mink and ginseng and other products, which can only be used as incidental. After all, because of the hostility with the Mongols, the Ming Dynasty relied heavily on the war horses of Liaodong, which was also a basic national policy. As for the trade in mink ginseng, it is secondary.

Only a small number of wealthy businessmen with background connections can buy mink and ginseng here. There are also businessmen who are not afraid of death, who secretly cross the border and sneak into the northeast jungle to exchange mink and ginseng with the Jurchens for huge profits.

Because of their contact with the Ming Dynasty, the Jurchens began to hunt mink very early to obtain mink skins. But in the long run, the number of minks in the Jilin region and the northeastern Liaodong region where the Jurchens were entrenched greatly decreased. Then, the mink trade began farther north in the Heilongjiang region, and even further north in the Outer Northeast region. After all, there was no chance to trade with the Ming Dynasty, and there was not much demand for mink. Moreover, even if the local Sauron people got their hands on mink, there was no way to sell it.

Because there was no way, the mink skins obtained by the Saurons could only be sold to the Mongolian Horqin tribe in the west, or the Hercynian Jurchen Ula tribe in the south. These two tribes, because they controlled the mink trade in the Sauron region, were also relatively wealthy and powerful.

And Nurhachi also conquered and controlled the Urabu early after the rebellion against the Ming, in order to control the mink purchase of the Sauron tribe in the north of the Ura. Because, at that time, the mink trade was very profitable. As long as there is mink in your hand, it is equivalent to having a mine at home, and you don't have to worry about the Ming Dynasty smuggling merchants coming to trade.

In the Ming Dynasty, being able to wear a mink coat was definitely a symbol of the bull. Many people like to show off their wealth with mink coats, and they also wear them on hot days. The strange book "Jin Pingmei", which was written in the Longwan period, also records a certain process of fighting for wealth. Among them, it was mentioned that Li Bei'er had a mink coat worth 60 taels of silver, which made Pan Jinlian very red-eyed. When leaving Simon's house, Pan Jinlian also specially stole the mink coat. At that time, buying a maid was only four or five taels of silver. A mink coat can buy a dozen maids...... And if it's sable skin, the value is even more immeasurable......

……

In addition, the reason why Tsarist Russia sent Cossacks on an expedition to Siberia was not for land at all, but to collect mink skins and sell them to Western European countries.

According to historical records, during the Tsarist period, before the 19th century, one-third of its financial revenue relied on the resale of mink from Siberia. Because, Tsarist Russia is located in a bitter cold land, and there is nothing that Western European countries can look up to. Only mink from Siberia is preferred by Western European countries.

That's why Tsarist Russia sent Cossacks on expeditions to the East, not for any land, but for the mink trade. After all, at that time, the world did not have a territorial concept, and Siberia could not be farmed, and mink became the most important pursuit of the Tsarist authorities. Even the First Battle of Yaksa was not caused by the land, but for the sake of mink production. Because, to the east of Lake Baikal, the area around the Khingan Mountains and the Greater Khingan Mountains outside the province was an important mink production area at that time.

Tsarist Russia relied on mink to retrade, and the Manchus also attached great importance to the supply of mink. Therefore, the two sides fought in Yaksa. At that time, neither side felt that the permafrost there was of much value, but only valued the mink there.

The final result of this battle was that the Manchus retained the mink production area south of the Outer Khing'an Mountains. Tsarist Russia, on the other hand, controlled the area of wild people in the Beishan Mountains north of the Outer Khingan Mountains, as well as the mink production areas such as the Nebuchu region.

After that, the Manchus and Tsarist Russia each engaged in their own mink. Even, because of the excessive demand for Manchu mink, mink was also imported to Tsarist Russia. Tsarist Russia also needed tea from the Qing Dynasty and was willing to exchange some mink skins. At that time, an important trade port was called Kyakhta......

……

Ma Lin intended to control the area around Yongning Temple, where he planned to buy mink along the Heilongjiang River. Then, it was sold to the Ming Dynasty or Europe.

He was worried that he didn't have any goods in his hands that the Ming Dynasty people could look up to, and it was also a very good choice to set up a trading point for purchasing mink skins in Yongning Temple on Temple Street by sea.

As for the goods traded with the local Saurons, savage Jurchens, and even the savages of the Northern Mountains, Marin also plans to use European wool wool and sweaters as the main products.

Marin was already planning to carry out the industrial revolution and was ready to intervene in the woolen industry. However, he did not have much fine wool in his hands, so he could only buy cheap coarse wool for the time being. The woolen wool and sweaters made of coarse wool are of average quality, durable and warm, and are definitely needed by the Saurons, Jurchens and Beishan savages living in bitter cold places.

In addition, iron tools, iron pots, swords, bows and arrows are also important exchange materials. As long as you have these things, you don't have to worry about not being able to get enough mink from the Saurons, Jurchens, and Northern Mountain Savages.

And after changing to mink, whether it is transported there to sell to the Ming Dynasty, or shipped back to Europe to sell at a high price, it is a good choice.

According to Bai Geri and others, every year, the entire area where Sauron's headquarters is located can produce a total of tens of thousands of mink skins, and there are thousands of precious sable skins alone. However, because there was no way, it had to be sold to the Mongolian Horqin Department at the southern foot of the Great Khingan Mountains, and the Haixi Jurchen Ula Department to the east of Horqin. Later, after the rise of Houjin, he made a move against the Urabu very early, just to snatch mink resources. At the same time, during the period of Huang Taiji, he conquered the Horqin Department and completed the monopoly of mink resources.

In addition, the five people also told Marin that if they set up a purchase point at Yongning Monastery in Nurkan City, they would not only be able to purchase mink skins from the Sauron people, but also mink skins from the Beishan savages north of the Outer Khingan Mountains. As long as you are willing to send a boat to the coastal areas of Shanbei in the summer, you can harvest at least a few thousand mink skins......

Ma Lin was about to drool when he heard it, you must know that the mink is at least a dozen taels of silver in Daming. However, when bartering with the locals, you can exchange iron and cotton robes worth one tael or two taels of silver. Moreover, those who sell mink are grateful. Because, in their hands, mink has no market at all.

In this way, if you can monopolize the mink trade in the Outer Northeast, you can harvest at least 10,000 mink skins a year!

What is the concept of 10,000 mink? If it is transported to Daming, it can be sold for at least 100,000 taels of silver! It's still ordinary, not counting the price of those sable skins. If you count those high-value sable skins, the total value should be more than 200,000 taels of silver. And the materials required to exchange these mink skins are at most 10,000 taels or 20,000 taels......

"It's worth it!" Marin wiped the saliva that almost ran from the corner of his mouth and made up his mind.