In mid-February, the temperature in Heilongjiang is still cold.

This former northernmost river in China is no longer what it used to be. The location of the Heilongjiang River is thousands of miles away from the apex of northern China, and the Kamchatka Peninsula and Xiangzhou [Alaska] at this time are even colder.

A long queue of ice trucks travels across the thick ice of the Heilongjiang River, which is the main mode of transportation in the northern region in winter.

It evolved from horse-drawn sleighs - horse-drawn ice cars.

For a Mongolian horse that is not large in size and has a slightly inferior pulling strength, it is equipped with a barbed horsehoe, and only two horses can pull up three or four thousand catties of things on the flat ice, and they can run fast. Therefore, the Heilongjiang River is not only the main communication line across the Outer Northeast during the half-year navigation period, but also can play an extraordinary role in the other half-year ice period.

A specially built ice cart can load a squad of soldiers, as well as the military ordnance they need to go out in battle, and the rations and forage of the horses, and then with the replacement horses, and easily transport them to a hundred miles away in one day. In the cold winter, in the fastest, most convenient and most economical way, soldiers and military supplies can be transported to the place they want to be delivered.

Seriously, it's not much more troublesome than when it's open.

The convoy had just returned from upstream, and they had picked up two teams of Wehrmacht troops at a station on the north bank, the latter of which needed to be rested. Of course, when they ran over, they also sent new garrison soldiers to the garrison, and along the way, they also sent a considerable amount of forage, food, cotton clothing, coal, spirits, and other materials.

But at the same time, he also brought back a not-so-good piece of information. Only half of the hundreds of Russian prisoners and Eight Banners prisoners who were assigned there last summer survived. This winter was no colder than usual, and Chen Han also gave them enough food, but the heavy labor and bitter cold climate caused nearly 300 'emaciated' Russians and banner prisoners to die on the banks of the Heilongjiang River.

In fact, as long as we compare Sakhalin Island, where the climate is not warm at all compared to the banks of the Heilongjiang River, the approximate mortality rate of Russian prisoners and bannermen prisoners in the first year is only about 10%-15%, which shows the importance of leaders.

Of course, the superiority of the living conditions of Sakhalin prisoners over the Outer Northeast is also an undeniable factor.

But those Russians and banner men are dead when they die, and the blame can only be that they have a weak foundation, and this cannot be used as an excuse for the person in charge of the labor camp, otherwise it will cause internal contradictions.

Although the 50 percent mortality rate far exceeds the legitimate mortality rate in the labor camps, the Outer Northeast is completely different from the mainland, and there is no 'legitimate death rate' in the Outer Northeast. The climate here is so different from the interior that it is not a crime to count the time of the labor camp after a winter.

In the bitter cold climate of the Outer Northeast, the management of labor camps has also become extensive. Here, the person in charge of the labor camp is the real master!

Of course, if you survive the first year, then basically even if you have initially adapted to the 'rhythm of life' here, plus the conditions at each labor site will definitely be better every year, and you may not be able to have a medical room the next winter. The mortality rate of re-education prisoners will plummet!

In a word, the better the living conditions, the better the urban facilities, and the more secure the living conditions, the lower the mortality rate.

Because the latter can effectively guarantee the livelihood of immigrants and labor prisoners in the cold winter.

When the Wehrmacht first entered Heilongjiang, not only did the immigrants freeze to death, but even the soldiers of the garrison froze to death. Therefore, the winter life in this place is inseparable from coal and wood, in the summer it is transported by pack horses and boats, and in the winter it is transported by sleds and river ice trucks, all in order to survive.

Immigrants who come here from the interior really don't want to step out of their villages in winter without three or five years of suffering. Winter here is really cat winter. Whenever the inhabitants go out, they must wear thick clothes like bears.

The outer northeast is rich in forest resources, and there are lumber yards everywhere, as well as quarries, or coal mines, and the main force of these mines are Russian prisoners of war and Eight Banners prisoners of labor. At the same time, these places don't stop even in winter.

The old Maozi in Europe should be familiar with working in the winter, and the Russians in Siberia are almost the same. In other seasons, they have to work on their fields and prepare hay for their livestock for the winter, so they only have time to come out in the winter to earn some cash income, mainly through mining – there are plenty of gold mines in Siberia, as well as logging, hunting and tanning leather, so that they can have enough cash to pay to the wolf-like tax collectors after the spring.

Many of them work outdoors, even in the freezing cold of minus 30 or 40 degrees. In the original plane of time and space, there were many exiled Russian writers, based on their own personal experiences, and told the difficult history of the Russian serfs in Siberia and the Far East through literary works.

Of course, this 'rule of life' was also learned early by immigrants and a few indigenous people in the mainland.

For example, in the port near the sea, such as Vladivostok, many people are hurrying to start tanning leather with alkali. The leather is mainly wild sheep skin, occasionally mixed with a small amount of tiger skin, mink skin, fox skin, wolf skin, bear skin, deer skin and other precious fur.

These people are working for the fur company.

The Russians were purged from Eastern Siberia, and all the fur resources here became Chinese. Although China's 'hunter force' has maintained a certain data line after expanding to a certain extent, it is clear that the development of one or two decades has formed a complete industrial chain in the outer northeast.

On the first line, there are hunters hunting, and on the second line, there is a fur and wild goods purchasing station, and the furs transported from the purchasing station are sent to the affiliated enterprises below for urgent processing, and then the tanned furs are sent directly to the sales department of the fur company.

Among them, the furs of excellent quality are selected and the rest of the furs are entered into the market in large quantities.

Seriously, a considerable number of fur companies that are now active in the Northeast have set up a clothing company by themselves, and the rest of them also have close cooperation with domestic garment companies.

Like at the beginning, it was purely about buying fur, and the benefits were exploited too much.

Nowadays, the sale of all kinds of furs, cured meats, animal fat, and wild mountain goods to the receiving stations of fur companies has become an important income for residents of the Outer Northeast region during the winter. The masters of the fur company sold sharp skinning knives, muskets, gunpowder, arrows, medicines, salt and soda ash on credit to the local population, especially the Daur, Oroqen and Buryats, who had a tradition of hunting, and then let them pay for it with tanned leather, pickled bacon and animal fat, and wild mountain goods. If there is a surplus of goods sold, then the fur company will also strongly recommend that they buy some leather/cotton shoes, leather/cotton clothing, spirits, tobacco, cane sugar, etc., and collect as much cash as they can have on hand.

Of course, if you want to get rich quick, you can definitely go to war for a fur company.

The immigrants from the Outer Northeast regarded the 'expeditions' as armies, and the expeditions of the fur companies or mining companies were indeed in danger. But where there is danger, there is gain, don't you see those warriors who have returned from going out to 'fight', which one is not bulging in the waist and rich in wealth?

The banknotes in his hands were stacked one after another, and instead of large chunks of sucrose, they were eating better tasting toffee and chocolate; It is no longer cigarette bags and pots that are smoked, but packets of cigarettes; It is no longer sweet potato roast, but a more energetic spirit; He is no longer wearing clumsy cotton clothes and cotton pants, but light and warm leather clothes and leather pants. When I saw something good, I said that I would buy it, not only would I eat, wear and enjoy it, but my family would become rich together.

However, in recent years, there have been many examples of making a fortune by entering the expedition, and rumors of the total annihilation of the expedition have also been reported from time to time.

Eastern Siberia is too big, too big.

It is also a pity that the remnants of the Eight Banners have been wiped out over the years, and the bandits who were once thriving before have also disappeared in silence, otherwise the danger of this expedition will be even greater.

It's just that the map left by Lao Maozi can't be trusted, whether it's the cabinet or the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, you have to let people go through it. This is the biggest reason for the popularity of expeditions, and many fur and mining companies are supported by the cabinet and the Metropolitan Governor's Office.

Moreover, Xiangzhou has been occupied by Chen Han for so many years, and many places have been explored, and Chen Han's eyes have extended to the inland areas of Canada. Again, an expedition was needed to fight the vanguard, and the expedition said it would face not only the sparse natives of the region, but also the British on the other side of the continent.

Although the Europeans could not survive in the interior of Canada for long, they sent expeditions and mapped many years ago.

If China officially enters the interior of Canada, it is really possible to match the British. It is difficult to say whether they will be greeted by a friendly encounter or a rain of bullets.

Chinese are very homely, even if it is a 'home' that has just moved for more than ten years, it is still a 'home'. In contrast, the aborigines here are more eager for money. They don't have much nostalgia for their hometown in the Outer Northeast, after all, they go out to 'work', not immigrants.

Yes, quite a few natives of the Outer Northeast have been recruited by the Wehrmacht.

These people can go, and all of them have undergone rigorous postgraduate examinations. Not only is it resistant to the cold, but they also have first-hand survival skills in the wild, and many of them are excellent hunters in the tribe.

For them, they have nothing and can live in the snowy and frozen mountains and forests for three or seven or eight days.

With great difficulty, the National Defense Forces and the local governments in the outer northeast have been able to find more than 200 such people.

Yes, there are only more than 200 people in total. Many of them are also gold medal hunters for fur companies.

More than 200 people seems like a lot, but at most there are about a dozen expeditions. For these people, the threat of an expedition is not much higher than that of being a hunter in Eastern Siberia. Where is it not the same to make money?

And as long as they have money in their hands, they can live in a warm house, wear warm clothes, and live a good life without worrying about food and drink, wine and meat. They can also take the money to find a woman, and even sell him a Caucasian woman. On such a day, it will undoubtedly be heaven. No matter what new continent or old continent they are in, no matter how far away they are, they only care about their own lives and the benefits that actually fall into their hands.