The Japanese have coveted Sakhalin for a long time.

If you don't say what is far away, you can say what is near. As early as the 12th year of Kanei (1635), Matsumae Kohiro, the second lord of the Matsumae Domain, sent his retainer Murakami Saemon to inspect Sakhalin Island, and the main area he explored was Omari and its vicinity in the south. In the years that followed, the Matsumae clan sent small expeditions into the southern part of Sakhalin to draw maps and look for specialties. At the same time, a merchant house was set up in Omari in an attempt to collect taxes from the local aborigines, and a fishing ground was set up in Aniwa Bay, where the port of Omari is located. In 1644, two years later, the Matsumae clan included Sakhalin Island and Ezo for the first time in the Shogunate's map of the country, the Shoho Imperial Territory.

It can be seen from this that the Matsumae clan has always coveted the rich island of Sakhalin, and has been wary of and repulsive towards any powerful outsiders. However, the outsiders were coming in large, strong, well-armed ships, and it seemed that they could provide sharp iron cannons, so it was not impossible to negotiate some business with them. With some gold placer mined in the Ezo land and some income from the Shandan trade in the Sakhalin area, the Matsumae Domain's financial situation was actually relatively well-off, so it was only natural to buy some war materials that were urgently needed at the front, and I believe that Kohiroden would gladly agree to this.

"The conditions for the sale of this iron cannon are very high." Kojiro snorted and said, "This will only be possible if our higher-ranking commander agrees, and he will obviously consider the opinions of many parties before making a final decision." All I can say now is that it is possible, but it is nothing more than that, and it requires further 'understanding'. You know. ”

Yoshinosuke Imamura nodded. Didn't say anything more. Everyone is in contact with each other for the first time. It was better to speak to the end, and besides, he also needed to go back to the domain to report to his lord.

Kojiro was negotiating, and Sergeant Johnson's men had already arrived ashore with a considerable amount of cargo. There are metal knives that look good, there are fine and sturdy fishing nets, there are heavy and durable cloths, there are warm coats, there are spirits to ward off the cold, there are snow-white and crystal salt, and even sharp sabers and armor that are rarely seen by ordinary people, all of these things deeply attract the attention of these Oroqen, Fiyaka, and Ainu people in the bazaar.

The sailors grinned and motioned for their own picking, and the men immediately rushed up to pick up their favorite items and looked at them carefully. Some of them caressed thick, hard-wearing denim, some tried on duck down coats and cotton coats, and some tried on sharp peeling knives and boning knives. Others focus on the snow-white salt and refreshing spirits. The goods brought by the people from the east coast are very representative, and they are basically all consumer goods, which is undoubtedly the most attractive to the aborigines of Sakhalin who are still in a primitive society.

The only people present were probably the Shandan people who came across the sea with their clothes and salt, because it meant that the large amount of goods in their hands would be backlogged and could not be sold. And the consequence of not being able to sell them is that they cannot exchange the goods they urgently need, which makes their faces ugly, but they dare not speak out because of the power of the big ships on the east coast.

Captain Li Yi, who then landed on the shore, quickly noticed the situation. In line with the principle of not letting go of every trading partner, Li Yi decided to take a look at the goods brought by the other party. After comparing with each other, these Shandan people finally understood Li Yi's intentions, and they soon happily moved their goods. Li Yi flipped through it casually, and it was roughly some mountain goods. There are prey such as roe deer, pheasants, and hares, as well as the fur of foxes, minks and even bears and blind bears; In addition to these. There was a large number of ethnic costumes - these were originally the goods that the natives of Sakhalin would buy, but now they were clearly affected by the goods provided by the people of the eastern coast.

After Li Yi thought about it for a while, he decided to eat all the goods that the Shandan people couldn't sell. Those game, fungus, bamboo shoots and other purchases are just used as food reserves for the return trip, and those precious furs are not worried about sales, not only in Europe, but also in the East Coast, those who have become rich in the country have a strong desire to consume these luxury goods. Moreover, these furs are almost rare to see in the southern hemisphere, and most of them can be sold for sky-high prices when shipped back to China. In fact, if these Shandan people find a way to get some wild ginseng, Li Yi and others will definitely buy it at a high price as soon as possible. Once these wild ginsengs are shipped back to the East Coast, Li Yi can think of with his toes what a strong desire to buy them will erupt from those elderly travelers. As for the clothes brought by the Shandan people, they are a bit of a chicken, but they can be stored first and rewarded later to the slaves who work quickly, which is also a way.

Li Yi's all-encompassing approach made these Shandan people ecstatic, and they exchanged their goods with the people of the East Coast, and then bartered the goods with the aborigines. Li Yi and the others were so happy that they could not close their mouths to this kind of transaction, a precious fur Dong'an people often only needed to pay a sharp knife and two bottles of Hezhong Daqu, and a large bag of fungus only needed a skinning knife, and the profits were unimaginably huge. What's even better is that in this kind of "unequal" transaction, everyone thinks they have earned, which is simply speechless.

Li Yi happily watched these Shandan people trading with his subordinates, while secretly thinking about his own affairs. Trading with these barbarians was certainly important, but it was not Li Yi's primary concern. His main concern was how to use trade to win over these barbarians and make them available to the people of the East Coast. These barbarians living in bitter cold lands lived by fishing and hunting, and their individual strength was strong, their will was extremely tenacious, but they were also very simple and simple. Once they are successfully recruited and assimilated, they will be an excellent aid to the East Coasters in ruling the land. Even when the people on the East Coast used troops elsewhere, they were able to draw them over to fight, just like the Tsar's Cossacks, and play a huge role in the expansion of the territory of the East Bank Republic.

The trade came to an end in the evening, and the goods brought by the people from the East Coast were snapped up, and as many as 600 pieces of precious furs were harvested, which were worth thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars in the East Coast and Europe. In addition to their furs, they also harvested a bunch of game, dried fish, fungus, winter bamboo shoots and other food, which were stored in the food hold of the ship. Eventually, Li Yi privately acquired two unknown birds of prey, which were sold to him by a local hunter in exchange for his saber and a well-made alpaca wool coat.

From the next day (June 25), Li Yi and others began to recruit indigenous people who were willing to follow them to the sea while selling their surplus goods, and gave them handsome rewards. Perhaps these natives were not very familiar with the East Coast people, and they still had doubts in their hearts, but in short, only a few or five people came to apply for the recruitment at the end of the day.

Li Yi is not in a hurry, anyway, he is just doing it. As a result, it was not until June 30, the day after the day he expected to stay in Dabo, that he recruited about seventy or eighty people in total. Many of these barbarians are still in a clan society, and everything in the family is decided by the patriarch. Some families were burdened by the overabundance of people, and they were also greedy for the goods provided by the Easterners, so they encouraged some young people in their families to go to the Easterners to recruit them. Most of these people who came to apply were young people alone, and of course, there were middle-aged people who dragged their families with their families, and under Li Yi's care, they all accepted all these people.

The people on the east coast also set up a few large pots of boiling water on the beach, and also erected a few wooden sheds. Everyone who came to apply was brought in and bathed in a hot shower, and then the barber cut them into bald heads. Draftees were given a khaki khaki uniform, a pair of cooked cowhide boots, and, of course, a field gray tweed coat according to their height and size. One by one, these recruits in new clothes look at me, I look at you, and some of them are still walking and jumping on the ground, with a little excitement mixed with novelty.

Li Yi looked at them with a pipe in his mouth and smiled, these are all good guys, and they are all willing to recruit, unlike those Koreans who were taken captive, they can be used as security forces whose loyalty is slightly worse than that of the Eight Banner Samurai. The development of Jinshan Port and Gushan Port in Australia is a good stage for these people to give full play to their strength.

Seeing that it would not be possible to recruit more people for a while, and the time was not early, Li Yi finally ordered to "break the waves" and set sail, leaving Dabo Port, where he had stayed for a week, and heading towards Heishui Port in the central part of the island.

Now that everything is ready, my task can basically be said to be successfully completed. They will then return to their homeland and submit a written report of the situation to the Admiralty and the Executive Committee, and then the superiors will decide what to do next.

Perhaps the only regret of the trip was that it was not possible to drink those Japanese to establish direct trade ties. On the same day, after Kojiro proposed to the other party to start trade between the two sides, Imamura Yoshinosuke and others left Omarari Port by ship that night and headed for Fukuyama Castle (the residence of the daimyo of the Matsumae Domain, also known as Matsumae Castle). However, until June 30, there was no news from these Japanese, and Li Yi and others, who could not delay any longer, had to leave, and after asking a Japanese businessman who was doing business in the local area to help find out the news, they hurriedly returned to Heishui Port. (To be continued......)