"Four months of freezing?" An was a little hesitant, "I'll do the math, we'd better use the winter monsoon in the southern hemisphere to sail, that is, we have to arrive in Australia after April, and then spend a month to run to the coast of Daming, which is the most economical and fastest." By this time, some ports in the south-central region of the Tatar Strait on the western side of Sakhalin Island should have thawed, and our fleet of steamers could come here to replenish coal, repair ships, and then go south to the coastal areas of Daming to collect population. The collected population is transported back to Sakhalin for recuperation, and the general process is like this, right? ”

"Not bad." Li Yi nodded and said, "Sakhalin Island is extremely rich in fishery resources, you always know salmon, right?" Animal and plant resources are also abundant, and of course the grain harvest here may not be very good, but it doesn't matter, it is enough to plant two crops of potatoes for a few months a year. And there will not be too many people here, and after there are too many people, they will begin to ship to the port of Jinshan in Australia. ”

"I still don't think it's reliable." An Shu muttered, "In such a cold place, it is more than 20 degrees below zero in winter, and you have to get some soil kang, which is very troublesome." ”

"Why are you so picky about an early transition base?" Li Yi dissatisfiedly knocked the map scroll in his hand on the back of An's head, and said, "I am the boss here, and I have the final say." In the early stage, we will be here, and when we have enough manpower in East Asia, we will find a way to take down the warm-water port of Jeju Island and use it as our immigration transit base off the coast of Daming. If the monkeys are in a hurry to occupy the islands in the East China Sea now, I estimate that when we come over today next year, we will almost be able to collect the bodies of Mo Dayong and them. Just their three hundred men. I'm worried that I'll be wiped out by the local Hezhes and Ainu on Sakhalin Island, although it's not very likely. ”

The two chatted for a while. Until six o'clock in the afternoon. Sergeant Johnson, who had gone out to collect grain and livestock, returned. His men appear to have fought outside, capturing hundreds of North Korean prisoners. In addition to these prisoners, they collected about 30,000 catties of grain, which were pulled back by the Korean prisoners in horse-drawn carts. To be honest, Li Yi was really a little surprised that these people were able to collect so much food, maybe they still broke the grain that they only got from a certain official warehouse. However, he didn't care much about these grains, and there were quite a lot of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn in the cabin, which was enough for everyone to eat for a long time. He now ordered the collection of food purely for free.

He is now more concerned with the live birds he collects than with food. How can a sailor who is away from home not eat meat? But spoiled cured or bacon is always unappetizing, so live birds are the love of sailors. Well, I have collected two cows, six pigs, a dozen sheep, and fifty chickens, which is not bad enough for the brothers to feast on. But then again, the combat effectiveness of the North Korean Li Dynasty army is really scum, and their own 100 musketeers and 300 black soldiers can swagger to collect food on Jeju Island, while most of those Li Dynasty troops can only stay in the city and dare not act rashly - well, maybe they haven't had time to mobilize a large army yet. However, it is indeed an indisputable fact that their combat effectiveness is weak. Matches with similar numbers often involve a volley of rifles and muskets. Then the black soldiers would charge them and crush them. It's no wonder that the scarce number of pirates were able to stir up the restlessness here!

After despising the weak combat effectiveness of the Li Dynasty's army, and seeing that the sky was about to get dark, Li Yi simply ordered the capture of about 150 Korean prisoners to be brought on board. Then the people on the east coast abandoned the dock they had just occupied during the day, and all returned to the ship, pulled up the anchor chains, hoisted the sails, and left!

In the early morning of May 30, 1642, the expedition of the Republic of the East Coast, sailing along the coast of Japan, finally arrived at the legendary Strait of Tatar. The wind was cold and the temperature was low, but it was clear that it had thawed. Li Yi stood at the bow of the ship, looking at the coastline map drawn by the mapping staff officers, and comparing it with the map he brought.

"This is Holmsk." "This is Soviet Port." "This is Uglegorsk." Li Yi kept muttering these place names in his mouth, and finally, in the afternoon of the next day, the two expedition ships lowered most of their sails one after the other and docked off the coast of an estuary. After sending small boats to measure the depth of the river channel, the two large boats simply drove in and docked at the mouth of the river, and dropped their heads and tails.

The shore is full of dense poplar and birch forests, and the tall and straight posture makes people feel shocked. The forest is bordered by plenty of meadows and annoying swamps, but these are not a problem in the eyes of the industrious East Coasters who are good at building.

"First of all, set up tents, cut wood, and build houses, you don't need me to tell you, do you? It's to do what you did in Gushan Port and Jinshan Port again. Li Yi wrapped himself in a tweed coat and wore long riding boots, and walked on the soft grass of Sakhalin. This island of more than 70,000 square kilometers was taken by Tsarist Russia from the Manchus during the Second Opium War, and later became the largest island in Russia. The island is rich in timber, coal, oil and gas, and fishery, and was once known as the Kuwait of the Far East. It is also strategically important because it is located in the middle of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, and it is a strategically important island that can reach the North American continent using the Kuroshio Current.

Due to the climate and ocean currents, the northern part of the island has always been colder than the south, and the harbor has been frozen for a longer time, so most of the island's population lives in the southern half. At this time, the Tsar's Cossacks had just explored the perimeter of the Sea of Okhotsk; Japan's Matsumae Domain had just sent personnel to inspect the island in a vain attempt to assert sovereignty; The Manchu government, the island's nominal owner, remained ignorant of this, and the island's Hezhe and Ainu did not know what fate awaited them in the coming decades.

"Hmph, occupy this place first, and cut off the old hair's paws to reach out here." Li Yi leisurely lit a pipe and said with a smile: "Now I suddenly think of a new use here, we can trade with the Matsumae Domain of Japan here. Aren't the Japanese closed off from the rest of the country? Well, I don't believe that the Tokugawa shogunate could effectively govern even such a remote Hokkaido territory of the Matsumae Domain. These bitter Matsumae Domain Japanese can endure trade with us, and we can sell them some cheap and high-quality industrial products in exchange for their gold, silver, and even population! Hehe, I'm smart, Ann? ”

"Then you have to go to the south near the port of Korsakov, where I heard that the Japanese had set up a fishing spot. At the same time, they also sent people to collect taxes from the island's natives, who are currently worshipping the Japanese as their masters. Ensign Ansu said angrily. He did not wear the navy's regular winter clothes like Li Yi, but wore a thick casual leather coat. The central part of Sakhalin, which has just thawed from the Frozen Realm, is cold, with temperatures only a few degrees Celsius above zero, so you really need to take precautions to keep warm.

"Hey, hey." Li Yi smiled, then changed the topic and said, "The first priority is to build a wooden house." Oh, by the way, it is also important to wipe the clay kang, otherwise it will be difficult to survive the winter in a few months. Well, all the honeycomb coals and tin stoves on the ship were removed. Twenty boxes of Dagqu were also brought down in the river, and all the grain seized from the Koreans was left on the island. Well, I've got to get them to work, grandma bear, it's so cold! ”

More than 150 North Korean captives captured on Jeju Island were cutting down the huge trees at the edge of the forest, along with about a hundred Eight Banner warriors. They will build themselves some new dwellings near the mouth of the river, as well as a wooden trestle bridge to facilitate the mooring of large ships entering the harbor. After doing this, their biggest task was to start prospecting in the nearby area, yes, to find coal mines. According to the information available to the traversers, Sakhalin is extremely rich in coal, and there happens to be one near Aleksandrovsk. The quality of the coal here is quite good, and the Russian government was able to mine it purely by hand, so of course the people on the east coast were able to do the same. The mined coal was washed and stacked on the seashore for the supply of ships from the Republic of China that came to call at the end of the year, which is why the people of the East Coast chose this place as a temporary supply port.

In order to commemorate China's historical domination of this area, Li Yi specially named this port "Heishui Port", which means the Heishui Governor's Mansion established during the Tang Dynasty. After moving many livestock, tools, food and household supplies to tents on the shore for temporary storage, the two expedition ships raised their iron anchors early the next morning (1 June) and headed south. The ship was carrying two hundred heavily armed warriors of the Eight Banners, who were to plunder all the way along the Korean coast, with the main aim of plundering food and population; If conditions permit, they will even enter the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, and select areas with broken order and weak defenses to land and plunder the population. All the looted people, food, livestock, and even gold and silver will be temporarily transported to the port of Blackwater on Sakhalin Island to be stored, waiting for the Eastern Republic expedition fleet to return to the mainland.

The landing crew consisted of 200 samurai of the Eight Banners (60 foot archers, 120 pikemen, 20 artillerymen) and 100 sailors in musketeers. Li Yi believes that in the face of the same number of enemies, there are not too many enemies in East Asia who can defeat them at this time. (To be continued......)