Chapter 125: Expedition to the North
After Zhu Youxiao withdrew the navy and ships blockading the Japanese kingdom to China, he reorganized them, some of them went south to the Philippines to assist Yu Hualong, and the other part returned to Goryeo. Zhu Youxiao promised to start acting on the matter of Lai Mubu and Dolgon, and they still need to occupy the Far North and Alaska in the future, so let them go to Hokkaido to adapt to the colder climate first.
Most of Xiong Tingbi's soldiers also began to be demobilized on the spot, but there was no need to establish any construction corps here, except for leaving 20,000 elite soldiers and replacing them with new weapons, the rest of Zhu Youxiao let them recover locally, marry wives and have children, anyway, there are too many deaths of Goryeo men. The captives of the Japanese have built a lot of houses, but their task has also been completed, and the next thing is to escort them back to the country, engaged in road repair and mining work, Zhu Youxiao needs a lot of steel and coal, these people are the best labor, in order to give them the motivation to live, Zhu Youxiao promised that after these people have worked for five years, they can be armed, and they will be sent to a place that will make them very happy, where the climate is suitable, and there are many women, as long as they are obedient, they can go, In terms of life, Zhu Youxiao did not treat them badly, let these captives eat and drink enough, and when life was rushing, they naturally had motivation, and these Japanese captives were very happy.
Speaking of Lai Mubu and Dolgon, since the end of the Goryeo War, they recruited 30,000 young men among the Jurchens, and then they trained desperately, hoping that Zhu Youxiao would send their people to that island, so that the tribes would have a good place to live and reproduce. Just when they were able to train for three months, Qi Jin's navy arrived, and the first batch of men and horses were mainly 30,000 Jurchen soldiers, plus 100,000 young people and a large amount of material supplies, and chose a favorable weather, and 500 large ships carried these people to Hokkaido.
Now Hokkaido is not called this name, but called Ezo, Hokkaido is the name of the Japanese people in the nineteenth century, the indigenous people of the island and the northeast people have similar living habits, now Zhu Youxiao has given it a new name, called New North Island, now there is not much population on the island, Zhu Youxiao took the first step to give him to Lai Mubu and Dolgon. He explicitly ordered them not to harm the interests of the locals, but to live in harmony with the locals, and his 30,000 soldiers were to protect the local area from the invasion of the Japanese people. In order to make the Jurchens live a better life, Zhu Youxiao also left them more than 100 fishing boats, more than 10,000 pistols, and more than 100 of the most primitive small mortars, telling them that if the Japanese invaded, the captured prisoners could exchange supplies with the mainland. After two months of continuous transportation, nearly 500,000 Jurchens were finally sent to New North Island, making it a possible way to stop the Japanese people from going north in the future.
Lai Mubu and Dolgon, who boarded the New North Island, found that this place was much better than the northeast where they originally lived, it was a humid oceanic climate, there were a large number of fish and shrimp in the surrounding sea, and there was land suitable for cultivation on the island, and the winter was not particularly cold, and the summer was not particularly hot, they were very satisfied with Zhu Youxiao's arrangement, and they wrote to Zhu Youxiao that they would always be loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Later, the Jurchens multiplied here, and when the Japanese began to expand here, Lai Mubu and Dolgon also captured many soldiers and sent them to the Ming Dynasty to work as coolies.
Wen Zhenmeng in the northeast is now very comfortable, with enough new officials to use, fertile black soil for them to cultivate, and countless materials for them to develop. However, Zhu Youxiao did not let them be idle, but gave them a difficult task, let him lead a part of the officials to explore the area of the Xing'an Mountains, find the local indigenous people, and make friends with them, gain their trust, let them integrate into the agricultural civilization of the Ming Dynasty, improve their living conditions, poor Wen Zhenmeng is in his fifties and has to go around with young people.
Zhao Shujiao and Man Gui were also transferred back to the northeast by Zhu Youxiao, and Goryeo was renamed a provincial-level special zone, and You Shigong and He Shixian were transferred to the Goryeo special region to assist Xiong Tingbi in guarding there. After Zhao Shujiao and Man Gui were transferred to the northeast, Zhu Youxiao ordered them to lead 10,000 soldiers and a large number of horses and supplies to the extreme north to explore. Zhu Youxiao drew them a rough map and asked them to explore the new territory there and open up the new territory of the Ming Dynasty. The two didn't know what was worth looking for there, but they did what Zhu Youxiao wanted, and they built a camp every 200 miles, and the camp was built into a small castle-like sturdy house, leaving 200 people to stay, and all the roads that passed were marked with road signs, so as to leave good signs for future supplies and facilitate future passage.
Zhao Shujiao and Man Gui have been advancing towards the far north, they first walked along the coast of the Heilongjiang River to the end, and then they have been advancing along the coastline not far away, because this can ensure that the general direction will not go wrong, the camps or small castles left along the way have later become small towns, they finally reached the northernmost point of the Kamchatka Peninsula before arriving in the harsh winter, by this time their supplies have been used up half, and there are less than a thousand people left, just as they are about to return home, Met a local tribe, or rather a small village, who claimed to be Inuit, short and stout in stature, with slender eyes, a wide nose with a curved tip, a wide face plate, and thick subcutaneous fat. The stout stature can withstand the cold, while the small eyes can prevent the irritation of the eyes from the bright light reflected by the polar ice and snow. Such physical traits give them an amazing ability to withstand the cold. But another important reason why the Inuit are resistant to cold is that they eat high-protein, high-calorie foods every day.
The Inuit warmly entertained Zhao Shujiao and Man Gui and their party, and were full of curiosity about them, through a period of difficult exchanges, they finally understood their situation, and the nearby geography, and most importantly, they knew that there was a bigger continent on the other side, because there were many Inuit who had been there, but unfortunately they needed to pass through a long distance of ice. In order not to waste time, Zhao Shujiao and Man Gui stayed with the help of the Inuit, sent a team of 100 people back, reported the situation here to Zhu Youxiao, and prepared to cross to the other side of the strait before the thaw of the strait next year to venturalize.
Besides, Wen Zhenmeng and their people, according to Zhu Youxiao's will, formed a humanistic geological expedition, after crossing the Waixing'an Mountains, encountered an unknown river, Wen Zhenmeng was a little old after all, and stayed by the river, the river was later named Wenzhen Menghe, a castle was built here, named Wenzhenmeng Castle, Wen Zhenmeng lived here with some personnel, and the rest of the people continued to explore along the Wenzhen Meng River under the leadership of Fu Guan.
Finally, when they walked along the Wenzhen Meng River for more than two months and felt exhausted, they met a tribe where Yakuts gathered, established a camp by the river, and began to communicate with the locals, the situation was not bad, and the communication was not too difficult, because there were many Yakuts in Fu Guan's team, although they lived far away, their living habits were not too similar, and the language was somewhat similar, but it was too cold here, and the local Yakut people's way of living was very different from that of people in the south, but no matter what, he finally stopped, exchanged some of the daily necessities he brought with the local Yakuts, and gave them some.
After getting the help of the local Kuiats, Fu Guan built a small building according to the local architectural method, which became the Ming Dynasty's foothold here, leaving a few hundred people and enough supplies for them to live here, and began to make friends with local tribal leaders and spread the civilization of the Ming Dynasty.