On the first day of March, Li Xin woke up early.

In late spring and March, the grass in the south of the Yangtze River grows, the peanut trees are mixed, and the birds fly wildly. But in this northern country, it is still icy and snowy. He looked through his notes, and had been walking for forty days from Yilan City in Beihai.

He estimated the distance to be at least three thousand miles.

Reindeer and sled dogs are very fast, and if they sprint short distances, they can run 120 miles in an hour. However, such a long journey, in order to maintain physical strength, the speed is relatively slow, and the daytime here is short and dark, and you have to hunt and camp, so the daily distance is relatively fixed, only 80 miles a day.

This speed can keep the reindeer and the dog running for two months in a row.

Eighty miles a day, forty days, more than three thousand miles. Thanks to these reindeer and dogs and sleds, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to go this far in such a cold snow and ice with just two legs.

They had crossed the confluence of the Aonen River the other day and were only a day's journey from the town of Nebuchu, which was located at the mouth of the Nebuchu River.

Although it was at least 1,800 miles away from the confluence of the Shilka River and the Erguna River, after Nikchu, it was almost the territory of the Sauron tribes.

Sorey had already led a team to Nebuchu on a sled yesterday.

Li Xin decided not to leave in a hurry, and to rest here for the time being, waiting for Soray to come back. The team continued to trek and needed time to recuperate.

After coming from Chita and recruiting 200 hunters from the Aoluguya tribe to accompany him, Li Xin visited the tribes of Sauron and the Mongolian Maomingan along the way. Li Xin's recruitment plan was very successful, after he demonstrated the power of the musket, and then said that the hunters who were willing to go with him would get a musket, and even after he went to Heilongjiang to help the imperial court rescue the Sauron tribe, he could get a reward, and the tribes were very excited.

This tribe recruited twenty or thirty, that tribe recruited forty or fifty, and some large tribes sent out hundreds of hunters. Up to now, Li Xin's support army, from the 500 people when it set out from Yilan City, has now focused on 5,000 people, and recruited more than 3,000 tribal hunters.

Most of the muskets were distributed, and the tribes carried their own reindeer and dogs with sleds, and they also brought their own dried meat bows and arrows.

After each march, Li Xin would set aside some time to train the coalition army.

Teach them to queue, teach them to use firearms. Teach them how to shoot in formation, as well as infantry coordination, and more. For a team of 5,000 people, one company with 200 people, three companies into one battalion, three battalions into one standard, and two standards into one association.

Li Xin gave his association a name, the First Association of the Heilongjiang Expeditionary Force of the Han Empire. Li Xin considered himself the co-president, and looked at his team, although he was dressed in a variety of clothes. There were all sorts of fur robes and fur hats, but they were armed with the muskets of the great men, as well as steel knives and swords, and their homemade bows and arrows, plus those mountain grenades. Li Xin is very confident in his own troops.

After putting on his fur hat, Li Xin stepped out of his leather tent and marched in the snow for more than a month, he had already adapted to the cold here. You don't need to live in an igloo anymore and you can still withstand the cold here.

The camp was already lively, even though it was already March. But there is no spring here.

According to the hunters, the ice on the river is still three or four feet thick, and it will take at least two or three months for it to melt completely. Many people drove the deer to eat moss and litmus, while Yakutia and others took their dogs to hunt, and many people were already fishing in ice caves, casting nets and even sticking javelins directly into fish.

Those fish are always so stupid, they have been under the ice for so long, and when they see an ice cave, they will always think that spring is coming, and they will swim over to breathe, and they will be stabbed by the hunters who have been waiting for them for a long time.

Li Xin has long been familiar with all this, but every time he sees this situation, he is always extremely emotional.

Although the north is cold, it is indeed rich, the forests are full of wild beasts and prey, and there are too many fish in the river to count, and many wild beasts and fish can be found casually.

Even though their team has now reached a huge scale of more than 5,000 people, they have no pressure to supply food at all. Hunters hunt and fish, and after hunting at night, they can set traps in the woods near the camp, and then when they go to call the deer back before leaving camp in the morning, they can check the traps and harvest a lot of prey.

Every day when Li Xin marched or camped, he would chat with one or two old people from the tribe. Ask them about the geography, weather, customs, etc. of the area.

He even accidentally discovered a number of minerals from his conversation. There are coal mines, iron mines, and even silver and gold mines.

He recorded the location of those minerals one by one, and if he reported these to the imperial court, then with the abundant specialties and minerals here, the imperial court could come here to develop. The various minerals and skins harvested from these places are fully able to cover the cost of developing garrisons in the Northland.

As long as there is no need to post money to northern Xinjiang, but there is still income, then the imperial court can get more support for the development of northern Xinjiang.

The farther Li Xin walked here, the longer he stayed, and the deeper he gradually gained a deeper understanding of this place.

He believes that in fact, to develop northern Xinjiang, it does not require too much manpower and material resources.

This area, including the vast West Ball region, is actually not very populous, and many tribes are still in a rather primitive and backward state, more or less in the clan era, not even the real tribal era, let alone any tribal alliance or kingdom.

These fishing and hunting tribes were not as fierce as the Jurchens, and the imperial court did not need to send large armies to conquer the region by force. Even these places do not need to build special roads, the rivers that are dense and vertical and horizontal are the best passages, except for the time when it is not easy to navigate, the rest of the time it is navigable in summer and autumn, and after freezing in spring and winter, it is as smooth as the main road.

The rivers here are extremely developed, and they are all rivers, various main streams and tributaries, which are much more convenient than the road network of the Central Plains. The imperial court only needed to build forts between some of the main river cruises, which could be used as post offices and rest camps.

It can also store supplies, and even serve as a trading station to trade furs with nearby people.

Each castle doesn't need much, a hundred soldiers are enough. In this way, in the entire area of West Pol, if dozens of fortresses are built, and then a few large fortresses are built in key places, then the entire vast area of West Pol. will be completely included in the rule of the imperial court. At that time, the imperial court traded furs with the indigenous tribes in these places, collected a transaction tax in the forts, and even collected a small tax on the tribes, which is believed to be acceptable to them.

What's more, you can also mine here.

If the imperial court could allow it, Li Xin even felt that with his current 5,000 men and horses, he would be able to build a dozen fortresses between the major rivers of Xipol, and he would be able to control this area for the empire.

But now, they still have to rescue Sauron and deal with the Jurchens.

The Jurchens in Heilongjiang were trying to annex the Sauron tribes. The Jurchen hundred-legged insects were dead and unfrozen, and they were the last obstacle to the empire's northward expansion.

Li Xin came to an ice cave, which was an ice cave where hunters fished, and the hole that had just been drilled in the morning had not long since a thick layer of ice had already formed. Li Xin took an ice pick, stabbed it up skillfully, and after a while, he reopened the ice hole, and he squatted directly on the edge of the ice cave. Start washing your face and rinsing your mouth.

When I washed my face, several fish swam over.

Li Xin picked up the ice pick next to him and saw a big fish and thrust it down, at least five or six catties of a big fish was lifted up by him.

"Beat the roe deer and scoop the fish." Li Xin couldn't help but think of this sentence, this is indeed the case here.

If the empire opens up this northern frontier. After the construction of fortresses and fortresses, there is no need to transport grain from the Central Plains, and there is prey everywhere, and the rivers are full of fish. As long as you bring a few nets over, you can also get 1,800 catties of nets online, after drying. Still afraid of running out of food?

Carrying the camp back, he shouted at an Agdi, who was making a fire, "Get sashimi to eat, this fish is fat!" ”

Li Xin spoke Tungusic language, and the languages spoken by the various fishing and hunting tribes were almost similar, and their language was somewhat similar to the Manchu language of the Jurchens, such as calling their fathers Amma, but there were also some differences. For example, the Manchurians called their mother Eniang, and the Sauron people called Eni.

Along the way, Li Xin had learned the Tungusic language very well, and was even able to figure out the subtle differences between the Evenki and the Oroqen and Daur tribal languages. Li Xin felt that he was very talented in languages, and he knew Mongolian, Manchu, Tungusic and even Spanish and Tibetan.

The old man Agdi is now very familiar with Li Xin, looking at the fish, the old man smiled and took it, and skillfully began to slice the fish.

Agdi was Li Xin's guide and Tungusic teacher, while Li Xin taught the old man Chinese.

"A, this fish is so fresh and fatty. There is no such delicious fish in the Central Plains, right? Agdi laughed and said that they liked to call their friends from outside as Anda.

Li Xin said with a smile: "The empire is vast, there are all kinds of fish, among which there is a kind of fish that is the fattest in this season, more delicious than this fish, but it itself is highly poisonous, this fish is called pufferfish, and it takes an experienced chef who specializes in puffer fish to make it well." There is also a kind of fish, which is huge, can be ten zhang long and weigh more than 100,000 catties. This kind of fish fat is the most, if you cut a piece of whale oil directly in such cold ice and snow, dip it in the sauce, it is delicious, and you can eat it without fear of cold."

Agdi listened to Li Xin talk about all kinds of fish, and was dumbfounded.

"There is also a very ferocious fish called the shark, this fish cannot urinate and the meat is poisonous and unpalatable, but after his shark fin is dried, it can be made into a delicious shark fin soup, which is a delicacy in the world."

When Agdi sliced the fish, Li Xin began to prepare the dipping sauce.

Li Xin's dipping sauce is very simple, pour some white wine in a wooden bowl, then pour some vinegar, then add some minced ginger and put some soy sauce. Although in Li Xin's opinion, the seasoning carried during the march was very small, but in Agdi's opinion, it was too rich.

They used to eat fish fillets, but at most they ate them with a little salt.

"In the future, I must go to the Central Plains, go to Beijing City, and see the prosperity and wealth of the Central Plains." Agdi dipped the thin fillet in the dipping sauce and put it in his mouth, and immediately a delicious taste spread in his mouth, and his lips and teeth were full of umami.

"In the future, the empire will definitely build a castle in northern Xinjiang, where a medical hall, a school, and a shop will be set up, so that the people in the forest will have medicine to treat when they are sick, children can have books to read, and their deer antlers, ginseng, skins, etc. can also be sold at the trading station, and exchanged for all kinds of clothes and fabrics produced by the Han Dynasty, all kinds of salt, tea, pots and bowls and other daily necessities."

Agdi was full of expectations for the kind of life he depicted.

"The Great Han will also tax us in the future, right?"

"You can rest assured that even if the tax is levied, it will be very low. Compared to the taxes you pay, you can enjoy more convenience and benefits. ”

A village by the Nebuchu River.

Soray looked at him from a distance with a small group of soldiers, and Soray held up his binoculars, but what he saw made him angry.

Nebuchu, the stockade of the Evenki tribe, was originally a lively trading station, but at this time it has completely changed.

A group of big noses seized the once bustling trading post and entrenched it, while many Evenki women, young and old, worked under the whip with chains on their hands.

"It's Russians."

A tribal warrior who lived not far upstream immediately recognized the big noses.

"They are Russians from the West, and they have been plundering all these years to the east, and in the early years they only bought mink skins from us, but then they robbed a lot. Originally, our tribe lived on the banks of the Lena River, but later the Russians built forts there and plundered everywhere, so we had to move south to the vicinity. Unexpectedly, these big noses are coming south again. ”

Soray carefully observed for a long time, and found that there were about 200 Russians in Nebuchu, and they were enslaving the people of the Sauron tribe to strengthen Nebuchu, and it could be seen that Nebuchu must have just experienced a battle, and there were many corpses piled up next to it.

But most of them are old people and women, and there are no adult men.

It is estimated that the men of Nebuchu all went to the east to fight the Jurchens.

"Why did the Russian robbers come to Nebuchu, and the Heilongjiang River is now controlled by the Jurchens?" Soray asked.

"It's winter, the rivers are frozen, and the Russians don't have to come up from the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River in the east, they can come directly from the north. A few thousand miles from here, on the banks of the Lena River in the north, there is a large Russian castle called Yakutsk, where there are many Russians. It is estimated that the Russians here came south directly from there after the river froze in winter. ”

In the north, although the winter is harsh, the rivers freeze over, and sometimes it is easier to get around. This is especially true of the route that crosses rivers and goes straight south. In summer and autumn, they usually have to sail along the river, but in winter, they can ride on sleds.

"Damn the Russians!"

"Let's go, go back to camp!"

Soray can't wait to get back to camp right away, bring a big army over and wipe out all these damn Russian noses! (To be continued.) )