After staying in Qingquan Township for two days, on 6 November, after the naval meteorological observers warned that the climate might change in the next few days, Wei Boqiu and his party returned to the "Sakhalin Eagle" anchored in the open sea in a small boat, preparing to turn around and return to Aniva Bay. Before leaving, Wei Boqiu left them fifty tons of rye collected from Temple Street and other places, which was enough for them to eat in March and April; In addition, Li Renjun also distributed a considerable part of the beef and mutton (which had been salted on the spot and stored in wooden barrels) captured in the Amur River valley, which was extremely favorable. Of course, this also has the factor of Wei Boqiu winning over the local officials of Shi'en, but this is not enough for outsiders.

On November 11, after overcoming adverse factors such as headwinds, fog and waves, the "Sakhalin Eagle" slowly docked on the northwest side of Aniva Bay, driven by a small steam engine. There is also a small settlement here, also set up this year, with about seven or eight hundred residents, slightly more than Qingquan Township.

In July, with the annihilation of Lu Guonan's main force, the Yuyuan army entered the neighboring Henan Province in a large manner, and the area around the Zhending Mansion, Shunde Mansion, Guangping Mansion and Daimyo Mansion of Beizhili was wreaking havoc. The local landlords armed the Daxing regimental exercises, and armed with the Yuyuan Army, Dongping thieves, mule troops and other "righteous troops" to come and go, and the fight was not lively. Because most of the landlords' regiments were newly trained and lacked experience in battle formations, they mostly took a defensive stance against these large groups of rebels, which allowed the Yuyuan Army and other armed forces to plunder in the countryside.

To put it bluntly, these people in the Yuyuan Army are actually armed with half-people and half-bandits, although they strongly advocate resisting the Qing Dynasty, but what they do on weekdays is no different from bandits. Therefore. They mainly value the "hard currency" among bandits, such as women, goods, livestock, grain, and ordnance. As for the local population. Then half sell and half give it to the yellow-clothed thief, and at the same time make a good relationship with them, and exchange some good things such as leather armor, spears, bows and arrows for use.

Since most of the rebels from all walks of life were Shandong people, they were unwilling to sell Shandong people to yellow-clothed thieves, so the people of the neighboring provinces of Henan and Beizhili fell into great luck, and many entire townships and villages were taken captive. On the way to transfer these people to Jinan, there are many people who wander through the ravines because of hunger, thirst, and infirmity, and the situation is unbearable.

However, in this way, those who can arrive in Jinan alive are naturally young and strong. It only takes a little ten days and a half to raise it, and then under the "escort" of the military man on the east coast, you can walk all the way to Dengzhou Mansion, and then wait for the next arrangement. Dengzhou is vast and sparsely populated, and there are many places to be resettled, so at least half of these people have been resettled in Dengzhou Prefecture on the spot, and Tunbao has been built in the local area to prepare for the development of Tuntian. As for the rest, due to the tight capacity, they can only go to the rear on medium-sized fishing boats produced by the Blackwater Shipyard. This type of ship has a small tonnage and average quality. In the summer and autumn, the Liaohai Sea and the Sea of Japan were bumpy and back, and there were many news that the entire ship capsized and all the immigrants were buried in the belly of the fish. It's chilling.

But no matter what, the rest of the Ming people who came to the Heishui area are finally blessed people (the landlord may not be counted). Since the Qing Dynasty fully recognized the rights and interests of the vested interests of the Ming Dynasty in exchange for the rapid stabilization of the world, the land annexation situation in these places did not ease in the slightest, and more than ninety percent of the people were still working for the landlords, and they were barely making ends meet. If you encounter three longs and two shorts, such as a family member who is sick or something, it will immediately be the rhythm of bankruptcy, and it is inevitable to sell children and daughters, so their lives are really unsatisfactory, and can even be said to be very miserable.

But in Sakhalin, the government of the Blackwater Pioneer Corps gave each adult man and woman five acres of land on credit, allowing them to cultivate it freely, and after five years of paying taxes, the land became their own permanently. Then they can save money to buy up to 25 acres of cultivated land and 20 acres of potang woodland at a preferential price (5 yuan per mu) to buy a rich family property for themselves and their future generations.

Although Sakhalin was a bitter cold land in the eyes of the Ming people, the fertility of the land here is evident compared to the Central Plains, which has been cultivated for 2,000 years. Even if you can only grow one season of rye or oats a year, but after one acre of land is served, it is not a problem to harvest seventy or eighty catties, and the husband and wife can harvest seven or eight hundred catties a year with ten acres of land.

What's more, in normal times, they can go out into the field to harvest hay – which is everywhere because of the sparse land – and feed the livestock, which is also on credit from the government, which is another income. Also, every summer and autumn, a large number of salmon in the sea swarm into the river on the shore, almost filling the entire river surface, at this time you can collect a few hundred catties with your eyes closed, and there is no problem at all after cleaning and drying for winter.

If you have spare time, those who are brave and experienced can also go to the mountains to collect some wild goods or something, or simply go to hunt some wild boars, roe deer, deer, bears and other large animals to obtain income; As for the timid and honest mud legs, you can also go to the government's construction site to sell your strength, and earn some money to pay the taxes of the year.

In short, as long as you have hands and feet, and people are not lazy, in the south of Sakhalin, where the land is fertile, the products are abundant, and there is no contradiction between people and land, your life will only get better and better, and a virtuous circle will be formed. And if you are warmly dressed and fed, if you have the conditions (there happens to be a school nearby), and then send the doll to the government's school to read and write, this life will be dignified, and it is not better than the life of selling children and daughters in Henan and Beizhili Khan and falling eight petals, bending over and selling coolies on a hunchback? I heard that the yellow-clothed thief - well, the yellow-clothed heavenly soldier - is the ancestor of the Great Song Dynasty, and naturally I am a Chinese Taoist, let's follow them, in short, it is not disgraceful to the ancestors.

Wei Boqiu did not have any intention of entrenching himself for too long in this place called Dushengji Township (later the city of Aniva in Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, named after the first immigrants from Dushengji, the Daimyo Prefecture of Northern Zhili), so he inspected the reclamation work as soon as he came ashore. Construction began at about the same time as Qingquan Township, and it also belongs to Dabo County.

Seriously, because of its proximity to the port of Omarari, the regional center in the southern part of Sakhalin, its vitality is much better than that of Cheongquan Township on a remote promontory. In addition to cultivating land and building settlements, local residents are very active in generating income for themselves. They would often flock into the mountains in droves to collect fungus from the trunks of rotting and fallen linden trees; Sometimes they also deliberately cut down trees so that they can continue to collect large quantities of fungus the following year. Of course, voluntary felling of trees is a violation of the Forest Resources Law enacted seven or eight years ago in the Republic of the Eastern Bank, but because it is difficult to regulate, it is repeatedly prohibited.

Oyster harvesting and seafood fishing are also thriving. In particular, the oysters in Aniwa Bay have always been known for their delicious taste, and they are large and have great economic value. As for the seaweed fishing industry, the scale is even more developed. Not long after the establishment of Dushengji Township, some merchants who got rich first arrived here in small wooden boats built by themselves, and the sea vegetables here are the most famous, with long and narrow leaves, which are very valuable for fishing.

At this time, the Daimari merchants brought their own Ainu laborers to catch the seaweed from the bottom of the sea where they grew with a long wooden pole with an iron hook tied to the top. The harvested seaweed is dried on the rocks by the sea, and then bundled up, most of which is used for personal use, and a small part is exported to Korea, Japan's Matsumae Domain, and Shandong's Denglai Prefecture. People in these areas still have the habit of eating sea vegetables, so the sales are okay.

In addition to fishing for sea vegetables, every summer and autumn, merchants also hire cheap Ainu people to catch Sakhalin's signature specialties such as sea cucumbers, sea crabs, and shrimps. They catch crabs with large nets and shrimp with fine nets, and the crabs are boiled on the spot in a pot filled with seawater, and then the crab meat is taken out of the crab claws and crab legs, dried and packed. Crab meat is a more expensive food in Korea, the Ming Dynasty (especially in the south) and Japan, and can be more profitable.

If crab meat is more profitable, then sea cucumber is a valuable ingredient for Chinese, and it is almost completely unmarketable. At present, on the beach in Dushengji Township, the merchants who fished for sea vegetables in the summer even hired some Ainu and even Japanese fishermen to dive to the bottom of the sea using rudimentary tools to catch fish, and the abundance of their catches is unimaginable, which also shows how amazing the wealth of this virgin land that has been dormant for countless years. As for the sea shrimp, it is relatively cheap, and it is generally used to make zuò shrimp paste, which is exported to Shandong to supply military supplies.

Wei Boqiu sighed to himself while listening to the introduction of the local officials in Mandarin with a strong accent, and decided to wait for the spring of next year to pass, and then find a way to get more people from Daming. Although the climate here is cold, the wealth accumulated over thousands of years is extremely amazing, the huge trees in the vast forest and sea, all kinds of seafood in the sea, the mountain prey on the land, and the fish and mussels and pearls in the rivers are simply innumerable. If there are tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of people working hard here, it will only take two or three generations to form a rich country here.

On November 13, Wei Boqiu completed his inspection, leaving some supplies for the settlers in Dushengji Township, and then left the area by boat and sailed to another settlement across the strait, which is also the site of the Heishui Botanical Garden, which specializes in cultivating improved varieties and developing horticulture. (To be continued......)