After the beginning of spring, Yantai looks much more lively. Half of the 16 migrant ships have begun to anchor in Yantai Port, preparing to bring a large number of Qingzhou migrants stranded here to Australia. These immigrants were taken with them by the East Coast Army when they retreated from Qingzhou and Yanzhou last year, and the number was about seven or eight thousand, of which the proportion of handicraftsmen was quite high, and this is exactly what the East Coast itself is emphasing.

Along with the arrival of these migrant ships, there were piles of supplies: more than 6,000 barrels (this is the most wearable of musket parts), 45 artillery pieces (there is a lack of gun carriages, and it is planned to be rebuilt on the spot in the Jeju workshop), more than 20 pieces of machinery and equipment (with certain spare parts), 1,000 sets of armor, and some other daily luxuries.

With the strengthening of the self-sufficiency of the Far East, there are now fewer and fewer weapons and equipment transported from the mainland. The Yangmado Workshop under the jurisdiction of the Blackwater Pioneer Team currently has nitrate fields to make nitrate and gunpowder, and the Jeju Island Workshop also uses abundant raw materials (pastures) to make leather armor, bows and arrows, and can also easily repair guns, artillery, armor, and logistics vehicles. The enhancement of these capabilities has greatly eased the pressure on local transportation, so that transport ships can carry more consumer goods such as cotton clothing, alcohol, dyed leather goods, high-quality metal utensils, tobacco, cane sugar, cocoa, and soap when they come from the mainland, which can also subsidize transportation costs to some extent.

Nowadays, the economy of the Blackwater area is really developing better and better under the rectification of the people on the east coast. Throughout last year, Shao Shude harvested more than 8,000 tons of corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, wheat and other grains in Yantai, Ninghaizhou, Dengzhou, Weihaiwei and other areas effectively controlled by people on the east coast. In addition, about 2,500 tons of grain are now produced in the Amur region. Basically achieved self-sufficiency; Mature sites such as Blackwater Port, Daebo Port, Rishiri Island, South Sakhalin Reclamation Bureau, and Jeju Island. A total of 10,900 tonnes of rye and oats were produced. The above annual output totals about 21,400 tons. Even counting the 9,400 tons of grain traded with North Korea, Japan and the Netherlands (most of them came from North Korea, the forced purchase price was 228 cents and 1 stone), the grain self-sufficiency rate of the people on the east coast reached more than 80% (128,000 soldiers and civilians in the Heishui area consumed a total of 31,500 tons of grain throughout the year).

From these figures, it is clear that the annual food deficit in the Heishui area is about 10,000 tons. Last year, all this grain was made up by the 5,000 tons of rice stocks (technology transfer fees) brought in by the Dutch, as well as the grain harvested by the East Coast Army in dozens of counties in Laizhou, Qingzhou, Jinan, and Yanzhou. In addition, Shao Shude's plan to "suppress the strong and equalize the land" is also in full swing in Dengzhou, because it is raw land, almost all of the soybeans or alfalfa planted in the first year. But it is these soybeans and alfalfa that have effectively supplemented the gap in livestock feed and edible oil on the east coast, and have strongly supported the frontline operations.

Steady development on land, and the people of the East Coast have also made great strides in making use of the extremely rich sea granary of the Kuril Islands fishing grounds. The number of medium-sized fishing boats (with a full load displacement of about 150 tons, the largest vessel that Blackwater Shipyard can build so far, and canvas, ropes, nets, anchor chains, skins, etc., which need to be imported from the country) has continued to climb to 38.

These vessels caught a total of 3,297 tonnes of marine fish throughout the year, taking advantage of the three major annual fishing floods: the saury (autumn species) flood that migrates from the Kuril Islands to the eastern coast of Japan, the Far Eastern pseudosardine stock, which also migrates from north to south, and the salmon flood, the largest annual flood in the Sakhalin, Kuril Islands, and Amur River basins, plus some trash fish caught in normal times. These are fat-rich cold-water fish, unlike freshwater and warm-water fish, which are very low in calories, and they can provide as many calories as or even more than grains. And this is one of the important alternatives to reduce the consumption of grain by military and civilian populations on the East Coast.

It is believed that with the deepening of the training of sailors and the increase in the number of fishing boats, there is almost no suspense that the annual fish production this year will be quite 4,000 tons. Last year, the East Coast Army marched east and west in Shandong. A large number of vessels were deployed to transport military supplies, which had a significant impact on fishery production. It is not yet known how the fighting will take place this year, but in the opinion of Shao Shude and others, it will not be larger than last year, so this year's fishery production should hit a record high.

Some of the fish caught are processed locally at Blackwater Port and then stored in underground ice cellars as a strategic reserve. Sometimes, under the instruction of the superiors, the local government of Heishui Port will specially clean out a batch of last year's inventory after the beginning of spring and sell it publicly in the market to return some of the currency. In addition, a considerable part of the fish is sent to the canning factory in Dabo Port for further processing, and this small factory, with the help of local technical experts, has specially developed several kinds of canned food for the field army, such as canned sea bream mushrooms, canned braised salmon, canned snow crab meat, and so on. In addition to supplying the army, the products produced by this kind of factory are also sold in small quantities on the market, and most of the buyers are residents of Dabo, Heishui, and other places. Occasionally, some Japanese people come to buy these canned fish and meat, which is the first factory in the Blackwater area to meet the needs of the private sector, and the benefits are not bad.

In addition to fishery products, the animals that are free-range on Rishiri Island, Rebun Island, and Okushiri Island are used to supplement animal protein to the military and civilians under the rule of the Blackwater region. The islands are lush in vegetation but small in size, making them a natural prison for these free-range animals. A few years ago, people on the east coast released a large number of cattle, sheep, moose, reindeer and roe deer to the island every year, and after several years of breeding, the population has increased greatly, including 1,435 roe deer, 4,218 cattle, more than 12,800 sheep, more than 300 moose and 769 reindeer. According to the hunting plan, it can provide hundreds of tons of meat for the Blackwater Pioneer Team every year.

On Jeju Island, the people of the East Coast have also started to make great efforts in recent years after receiving the heritage of the Koreans. After a few years of significant decline, the number of Korean dwarf horses, donkeys and mules on the Hallasan pasture has recovered for two consecutive years from '47, and the total number has now exceeded 13,000. A large amount of leather, horns, and tendons produced every year provided sufficient raw materials for the island's weapons making workshops, and effectively guaranteed the military supply of the front-line servant army.

These are all the family properties laid by Mo Ming and Mo Dashuai at that time, and after he left office, Wei Boqiu also painstakingly expanded them, so that the economic production in the Heishui area has been developed in the long run. After the new leader of the pioneer team, Shao Shude, took office, Wei Boqiu received further support, and the development of new territories such as the Amur River Basin, the eastern part of Hokkaido, and the South Sakhalin Reclamation Bureau was carried out against such a background.

In order to attract the hearts of the soldiers, in addition to distributing the land equally among the servant officers and soldiers in Dengzhou, Shao Shude also distributed a large number of disabled soldiers to the fertile river valley around the Nankukhalin Reclamation Bureau, and at the same time allocated them houses, livestock, and daughters-in-law, who would become the backbone of the Dong'an's control of this new territory.

All in all, today's Heishui region has begun to recuperate in the Shao era or the Wei era after experiencing the rapid advance of the Mo era. Although there are still many battles on the front line, about 16,000 permanent residents in the rear of the ports of Blackwater, Omarari, Minami Sakhalin Reclamation Bureau, and Rishiri Island have always lived peacefully. Together with more than 70,000 temporary residents (migrants to be transported), with their industrious hands and indomitable will, they created a great deal of wealth and strongly supported the fighting attrition on the front.

After the thaw of Yantai Port in the middle of last month (February), Shao Shude went to Jeju Island and Busan, and then went to Rishiri Island to discuss economic work with Wei Boqiu. After doing this, he hurriedly returned to Yantai by boat to begin another important work of the year - the construction of a fortress and a simple port in the Jiaozhou Bay area.

In fact, this plan was already being carried out in 1648, when the army on the east coast was galloping and marching forward in Shandong, and the newly appointed Shao Shude, under Mo Ming's construction, captured a large number of people, demolished the dilapidated Jiaozhou City, and began to find a deep water coast in the bay to build a fortress. The scale of this fortress is slightly larger than that of Yantai, and the masonry and cement structure of the fortress is used to guard the security of the pier.

After all, the Liaohai Sea will freeze for about one or two months during the coldest period of winter every year, and the transport ships of the navy on the east coast will not be able to dispatch at this time, which will greatly affect the supply of logistics materials for the troops. Therefore, the construction of a new wharf on the shore of the Yellow Sea, which does not freeze in winter, has become a new policy that Shao Shude is focusing on.

Since the beginning of '48, building materials enterprises such as brick kiln factories, lime factories and cement factories in Heishui Port have begun to deduct a considerable part of their monthly production plans, and then load them on ships and ship them to Jiaozhou Bay for the construction of local forts and wharves. After 49 years, Shao Shude was a little dissatisfied with the progress of the construction of the fort and the wharf, so he decided to increase investment here, that is, to use more construction materials (the insufficient part of the Jiaozhou city wall was demolished, and the people were requisitioned to the seaside to quarry stones), and more manpower was invested, in order to complete the construction of the fort and wharf by the end of this year.

At that time, the 2,000 officers and men of the newly formed Fourth Brigade of the Advance Brigade will be stationed in this fortified fortress on the shore of the Yellow Sea, together with some artillery, and firmly control the waist of the Shandong Peninsula in their hands. At present, the Fourth Brigade has just completed its recruitment and is still training in Yantai. Shao Shude himself was also very concerned about this army, and he even personally went to Dabo Port to inspect the recruited Shandan and Japanese soldiers, and he also conducted a detailed investigation of the Ming soldiers who were transferred from the military team to ensure that no soldiers were mixed into the troops. During the training in Yantai, he even took the time to ask each officer to ask them for warmth and to understand their ideological dynamics, so that he could have a clear idea of what to expect.

After this complete set, the combat strength of the officers and men of the Fourth Brigade of the Advance Brigade was provided quite quickly, and the morale of the officers and men of the Fourth Brigade was maintained at a very high level. Shao Shude pondered, when he was busy with the spring sowing of Yantai, if the front-line battlefield was in good shape, he would take the 2,000 officers and soldiers of the Fourth Brigade to conquer Jinan Mansion and Dongchang Mansion in person, and let these sons and daughters accumulate some combat experience, and at the same time, they also brushed up on their own feelings. (To be continued......)