In the blink of an eye, the Song army had been in Kunzhou for three months, and the Song army basically figured out the topographical characteristics of Kunzhou, which was square in shape, thousands of miles wide from north to south and east to west, and in the middle was a volcanic mountain range, covered by dense forests.

The grassland is mainly distributed in the north and east, especially the northeast grassland, although there are gentle mountains in the middle, but they are mainly grasslands, stretching for thousands of miles, more than 300 miles wide, the pasture is abundant, and hundreds of thousands of war horses can be raised.

The grassland in the southeast is slightly smaller, but it is also hundreds of miles long and wide, which can raise cattle and sheep and other livestock, and it is warmer due to the influence of warm currents, so that horses can move to spend the winter.

There are no enemies on the island, but the beasts have become the biggest enemies of the war horses, there are no tigers in Kunzhou, but there are a group of wild wolves and countless brown bears, in addition to foxes and a large number of elk and sika deer.

The only threat to the horses is to take a pack of wild wolves, and hundreds of Song soldiers spent a month, under the leadership of Kun hunters, to eradicate all the wild wolves on Kunzhou Island.

The first batch of 5,000 mares and all the stallions had also migrated from Songma Island to Kunzhou two months earlier, and they began to run on the boundless grasslands, where the Song army built a large number of stables and set up a small tent to garrison 500 soldiers and horse breeding officials.

In addition, the Song army hired more than 100 Kun people on the condition of grain, salt and cloth, and began to train them to ride and raise horses.

Beginning in July, officials hired hundreds of Kun men and women to help with the harvesting of grass, which was more abundant and dried and shipped to the southern end of the east coast, where the horses spent the winter.

Although it is the height of summer in July, the weather in Kunzhou is not hot, and the climate is relatively suitable.

According to the plan, the Song Dynasty would spend at least two years running Kunzhou, and only after it had completely established itself in Kunzhou did it begin to march towards Sakhalin, but the front of the Song army still needed to explore Sakhalin Island and go to the island to survey the terrain.

This time, Fan Ning led the army to the north, and the three of them had their own division of labor, Di Qing led the army and the craftsmen to build the first city in Kunnan Bay in the south, preparing to be the seat of Kunnan County.

Zhao Zongshi is in charge of arranging horse breeding, which is the top priority, and their main purpose in occupying Kunzhou is to raise horses, and they started breeding two months ago, and their goal is to add 2,000 ponies next year.

Fanning led an army of 1,000 to continue to explore the surrounding islands, exterminate the hostile tribes, and subdue the gentle tribes, in addition to the dozen or so islands on the east and west sides of Kunzhou, they focused on exploring the archipelago to the north, which later became the Kuril Islands.

Several of the larger islands, such as the four northern islands of Japan and so on, were inhabited by a small number of natives, but most of these natives were docile and kind, and compared with their counterparts in Kunzhou, their numbers were much smaller, ranging from dozens to hundreds, all of whom lived by hunting and fishing.

That morning, after several days of sailing, Fanning's fleet of fifty large ships gradually arrived on the northern island of Sakhalin.

He was accompanied by a Kun elder, the oldest of the Kun clan, about fifty years old, whose name was Sapu, which means tree in the native language.

Sapp was the chief of the original northeastern tribes, and the chief of the northwestern tribes was his eldest son, and now that the two tribes were reunited, he became the tribal elder and held the divine power.

After living on Sakhalin for 40 years, Sapu led his tribe to move from Sakhalin to Kunzhou only 10 years ago, and as soon as they landed on the island, they were attacked head-on by the Kunnan tribe, suffering heavy casualties and being forced to submit.

Three years ago, his three wives and daughters were snatched away by the Kunnan tribe, and at the same time, they were forcibly divided into two tribes by the peninsula tribes, making them even weaker and unable to resist the bullying of the Kunnan tribe.

It wasn't until the southern part of Kun, which was completely annihilated by the Song army, that the wives and daughters who were snatched away returned to him.

From this point, Sapp was full of gratitude to Song Jun, and after a few months of getting along, he could also speak more than a hundred Chinese words, although the pronunciation was not good, but he could barely understand it.

Along the way, he told Fanning that there were very few Kun people on Sakhalin Island, just over 1,000 people, and that since their tribe moved south to Kunzhou ten years ago, there was only one tribe left on Sakhalin Island, about 300 people, who lived by hunting and fishing.

Among the people who came to explore with Fan Ning, in addition to Xu Qing, there was Zhu Yuanfeng's eldest grandson Zhu Lin, according to Fan Ning's idea, it was best to build an island, but Zhu Lin searched for a circle and did not meet a satisfactory island, he hoped to find an island that was rich in resources and could raise horses.

However, one of the islands made him a little tempted, dozens of miles wide, more than two hundred miles long, there are also large grasslands on the island, and there are natural harbors, Sap called it Black Island, this island is actually the Kunashir Island among the four northern islands later.

Just because the area is a bit large, and he doesn't know if the imperial court is willing to give this island to his grandfather, Zhu Lin's heart is full of worries.

Fan Ning understood his feelings, so he patted him on the shoulder and smiled: "Those more than a hundred stallions are very important to the establishment of a ranch, this credit is very clear, since he promised to give you grandfather land, it will not be too small, and it is not the land of Kunzhou, but an island, he should agree." ”

Zhu Lin nodded, "My grandfather wanted to raise thousands of horses, this was his dream since he was a child, and it was also my dream. ”

Fanning laughed, "This is actually the dream of every Great Song person!" ”

"There!"

Tharp suddenly pointed to the looming land in the distance and shouted, "Here we are!" ”

In fact, Sakhalin Island and Kunzhou are very close to each other, and there is a Zongu Strait in between, but Fanning and the others first explored the northern archipelago, and then turned around and went to Sakhalin, which took several days.

Saleen's pronunciation was odd, but everyone understood, and everyone cheered.

Seeing that Mingren and Mingli were the most excited, Fanning smiled and patted them on the head, "What are you happy about?" ”

The two brothers sighed: "It's not easy! After a few days of walking, it finally arrived. ”

Fanning smiled: "If I told you that the southernmost part of this big island is less than a hundred miles away from Kunzhou, would you still be so excited?" ”

The two brothers were stunned, "Is it so close?" ”

Fanning pointed to the guide and asked Sapp with a smile, "Elder, is it close?" ”

Sapp knew what he meant and smiled, "It's close!" ”

Akihito scratched his head and muttered, "If I knew it was so close, we would have come by rowing a canoe." ”

"You can go back in a canoe!"

Fanning laughed and unfolded his map of Sakhalin, which was drawn according to the memories of his later generations.

It is more than 2,000 miles long, hundreds of miles wide in the north, and very narrow in the south, like a long pole, only more than 20 miles wide, and the southernmost point is a harpoon-shaped bay.

Fanning pointed to the map and asked, "Elder, is there a place where it doesn't freeze in winter?" ”

Sapp didn't understand what he meant, and Fanning smiled again: "In winter, there is no ice in the water!" ”

After speaking twice, Sapp finally understood.

He hurriedly pointed to the southernmost bay and said, "Here! ”

Fanning nodded, thinking secretly in his heart, Sakhalin Island really has an ice-free port, it is estimated that due to the influence of the Kuroshio tributary, the southernmost bay does not freeze, and it is a good place to build a military city base.

The fleet, under the guidance of Sapp, landed directly in a bay, and everyone was immediately shocked by the endless grassland in the distance, and Akihito stammered, "Is it possible to raise livestock here?" ”

Fanning smiled, ignoring his surprise, and said to the crowd, "Get off the boat and take a look!" ”

Fanning's interest in Sakhalin was not that it was used to raise horses or anything, Sakhalin was actually only available in the south, and the northern part of the island was too long in winter, covered with snow and ice for half the year, and crops could only be grown from April to September.

The role of Sakhalin is its strategic value, and once the time is ripe, the Song Liao will fight in Youzhou, and the fleet of the Great Song Navy will advance west along the Heishui or Tumen River, and can directly enter the Khitan lair.

The Liao State is a vast country with hundreds of ethnic groups, but once its nest is destroyed, its rule will most likely fall apart.

Fanning landed in central Sakhalin, where they spent two days, where they met with the local tribal chiefs under the guidance of Sap, who were also kind and hospitable.

They brought out fresh bear meat and venison for Fanning and his army, and the army brought out hundreds of jars of wine, and the people drank and ate meat around the campfire, and the maidens danced in the firelight, and although they did not understand the language, they gathered very happily.

In the firelight, Fanning whispered the word 'Great Song' to Sapu, and pointed to the leader of the other tribe, Sapu immediately understood what Fanning meant, hoping that the other party would also become the people of the Great Song Dynasty, of course, the conditions are the same, they can live here for a long time, or they can move south to Kunzhou.

Sapp sat in front of the chief and drank and chatted with him, chatting with him slowly about their move south to Maoren Island, when he talked about his tribe being bullied, the other leader's eyes flashed with anger, and when he talked about the Song army's annihilation of the local tribes and helping them recapture the stolen wives and daughters, the chief's eyes were full of gratitude, and he raised the wine bowl to Fanning to show his respect.

Early the next morning, Fanning led the army to leave, and he gave the other party a thousand pieces of cloth and a batch of household utensils, and the leader of the other party was overjoyed and gave Fanning a hundred tiger skins and fifty bear skins as gifts.

The fleet began to slowly turn south, looking at the tall wooden house in the distance, Sapp pointed his head and smiled at Fanning: "Da Song, he, think about it!" ”

Fan Ning smiled and nodded, the other party should have to discuss with the whole clan before deciding, but at least it shows that the leader himself is quite tempted.

In fact, this is a good thing for them, becoming the people of the Great Song Dynasty will not affect their lives, nor will they change their beliefs and customs, but they can get food and cloth, they can eat and cloth, and they can learn to farm and weave, how can they refuse such a life?

https:

Genius one second to remember the address of this site:. Mobile version reading URL: m.