May 3, 1727, Xijing (present-day Irkutsk, Russia).

In a bustling fur market outside the city, fur merchant Kim Jun squatted beside a Buryat hunter and examined the bundles of furs on the ground one by one, carefully examining them one by one.

The stocky, powerful Buryats watched uneasily as a few pieces of fur that had been picked out were deliberately discarded aside, and the corners of his mouth were sharp, as if he wanted to say a few words, but he did not know whether it was because of the language barrier or because he was afraid of offending the buyer in front of him, so he finally pursed his lips tightly and remained silent.

"Thirteen mink, eight foxes, and thirty-four silver ratskins." Jin Jun clapped his hands, stood up, then looked at the Buryats, and quickly quoted the price, "Mink anise, fox skin five pieces, silver rat skin five corners, well, a total of thirty-nine pieces and four corners." ”

The Buryats looked at the numbers in Jin Jun's hand and were stunned for a while, then shook his head and spoke not very fluent Chinese: "Mink...... Less money, fox fur ...... There are also less. That ......, that money is missing......"

"Hey......" Jin Jun squinted his eyes, looked at him with some disdain, and said coldly: "Don't you know that there are more and more skins now?" There are more of these things, but won't the price come down? Sneer...... if you don't think the price is low, then just carry the leather home. I'll see, you can wait until next year to sell for a high price! ”

The Buryats, with a hesitant look on his face, turned to look at his companion.

Many of these skins were hunted last autumn and winter, when the animal fur was at its peak, and it was thought that they could be sold for a good price at the beginning of spring next year. Unexpectedly, the price was much lower than last year, which made these Buryats who hunted hard a little disappointed.

Of course, if you dislike the low price, as the other party said, you can take it back to the tribe and wait for a suitable price before selling, maybe you can exchange it for more money.

However, if the fur has been accumulated for a year, the black-hearted buyers will definitely dislike the backlog of fur for too long, lose its freshness, and take the opportunity to drive down the price.

Moreover, if the price of furs continues to be depressed next year, it will be even more of a loss of money.

After a long and cold winter, the daily necessities such as grain, salt, spices, tea, and cane sugar accumulated at home have been exhausted, hunting knives and bows also need to be replaced, and some iron nails need to be bought for the repair of the wooden house where they live, and whether the mother-in-law and children at home need to change into a few beautiful and comfortable clothes...... all of which cost a lot of money.

It is said that more than 30 years ago, when the Buryats living in the Beihai (present-day Baikal) region were not under the rule of the Bohai State, they lived a very primitive life, and their desires for various needs were extremely low.

They don't grow crops and don't have much interest in doing that. They prefer to go into the mountains and forests to hunt all kinds of wild animals, and they are usually fur-bearing animals. The meat of the beast was edible, the fur could be used for warmth, and of course, the surplus fur was exchanged for some necessities with foreign merchants. They sometimes go to the forest to cut wood and pick wild fruits, fungus and other mountain goods.

They are very mobile, they like to chase the traces of wild beasts, and their possessions are very simple, they have no possessions, usually a small number of iron tools, wooden spears and bone arrows, hunting dogs, tents, well, some people will build simple wooden houses, clean up some of the caves that can be inhabited.

Later, the brutal Rakshasas came and slaughtered and oppressed them, either by taking them to the castle strongholds and becoming poor slaves and coolies, or by the Cossacks who drove them all over the mountains and forests, and lived an extremely miserable life, and the population also fell sharply.

Just when all the tribes in the Beihai region were in despair, the powerful Bohai State slaughtered all the way from the Heilongjiang River in the east, uprooted the fortresses built by the Rakshasas one by one, and declared that all the liberated local tribes were under the rule of the Bohai State.

From 1682 to 1684, after repeated battles between the Bohai State and the Rakshasas, they were finally expelled from the Beihai region and occupied this land rich in water and grass and rich resources.

The Bohai State absorbed many immigrants from Han China, Korea, Japan and other places, and then moved them to this place one after another, and at the same time organized the Buryats, Evenks, and Bruts in the mountains and forests in a small area to try to bring them under its rule.

The local government of the Bohai State ordered all tribes and nationalities to pay a certain fur tax per capitation - well, the tax was much lighter than that of the Rakshasas, with only two fox skins or six mink pelts per adult male, and half for women and minor males, and military service according to the number of tribesmen to continue the conquest of new territories for the king.

Those who migrated from outside the country preferred to settle down, building their houses along the coast (Lake Baikal) or along river valleys, cultivating the fertile black soil, growing cereals and vegetables, and then selling their produce to the scattered tribes in the mountains and forests for income and meat supplementation.

In the eyes of the local tribes, these immigrants are really very "magical", many of them have nothing when they come, alone, but they rely on the spirit of hardship and hard work, superb farming skills, oh, and flexible business acumen, and earn a lot of money from them.

On the whole, after twenty or thirty years of development, these immigrants seem to be living well, much richer than their local tribes. Sometimes, when the harvest is busy in the fall, they will hire tribes to do some simple farm work, paid daily, usually for grain or soju.

Affected by the long-term life of these farming peoples, the mountain and forest tribes that once lived a minimalist life have also changed, the soft and comfortable cotton cloth and silky silk cloth are so lovely, the spicy soju also makes the stout men feel inexplicably excited, the hard and sharp long knife can make a brave hunter harvest more beasts and furs, and the fragrant tea leaves allow the tribal people who are used to eating meat to digest the greasy stomach, not to mention the ability to cook all kinds of delicious spices, and the low price of salt, which can marinate large quantities of meat products, has radically improved their miserable lives.

Well, that's probably what those government officials say, "bask in the sunshine of the civilized world, feel the life of the civilized world, and then convert to the rule of the civilized world."

The armed deterrence of muskets and artillery, the strong economic attraction, and after years of rectification, the various tribes of Siberia have basically accepted the rule of the Bohai State and the reality that these immigrants are a level higher than them in terms of political and economic status.

Some of the immigrants with flexible brains had a really good idea, exchanging their agricultural products for valuable mink, fox skin, bear skin, ginseng, fungus, gold placer and other commodities with the mountain and forest tribesmen, and then they could sell them at a slightly higher price at the big fur buyers in the city or the inner government purchase points controlled by the Bohai royal family, and the profit margins in the middle were still relatively rich.

In addition, they would bring small goods from the city and sell them to the tribe, such as soju, tobacco, gunpowder, salt, spices, metal knives, and other daily necessities. These small traders, acting as second-class dealers to earn the difference, had a good life.

In order to obtain more human resources, in addition to clearing out the tribesmen in the mountains and forests, the Bohai State also went to Liaodong, Korea, Japan, and even the narrow and densely populated Jiangnan region to recruit immigrants through various channels.

The Bohai government's policy towards immigrants is also very favorable, not only providing a full range of migrant transportation - usually employing Qi country's merchant ships to carry migrants, but also allocating 40 acres of land for each arriving migrant (who needs to serve for the government for three years without pay). After repaying the government's loans (usually various farm implements, livestock or houses), they can continue to buy more land at a price of three yuan per acre. For land allocated by the government to immigrants, all taxes are completely exempted for the first five years, and the collection is halved from the sixth to the tenth year.

It has to be said that the immigration policy of the Bohai State is quite attractive, and for those landless or landless Han tenant farmers, the possibility of obtaining a piece of land that can be passed on to future generations will undoubtedly stimulate their adventurous spirit.

What, the land of the Bohai Sea is too wild and bitterly cold?

So what, it's better than a helpless life with no money, no home and no place to stand, isn't it?

According to the census (modeled after the Qi State model, the population data of the country are regularly counted every ten years), by 1720, there were more than 413,000 people under the rule of the Bohai State - of course, there were still some tribes hidden in the remote and dense mountains and forests that had not yet been cleared out, and the entire Lingbei region was properly ranked among the "great powers".

However, among the more than 400,000 nationals, the ethnic composition is also relatively complex, including Jurchens, Han Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Khalkha Mongols, and many local ethnic minorities such as Daur, Evenks, Oroqens, and Buryats.

Among them, the highest political and economic status were the Jurchens and Han Chinese, the former was the ruling class of the royal family, and the latter, because of the influence and interference of the Qi State and the Northern Ming, controlled most of the government officials and technical positions in the Bohai State, and also occupied an absolute dominant position in the national economy, and intermarried with the Jurchens for a long time, almost integrating with each other.

Because of the long-term military and economic assistance received from Qi and Beiming, the entire Bohai State was deeply influenced by the two countries in all aspects. Even with the tacit consent of the Qi State, the three countries of Bohai, Dongdan and Beiming also signed a military mutual assistance alliance against the Qin State, agreeing that after each other was attacked by the Qin State, they were all obliged to launch military operations and launch a counterattack against the Qin State.

Among these three kingdoms, the Northern Ming Dynasty, which is naturally the most powerful and has a larger population, is dominated by the Northern Ming Dynasty, and under the premise of not touching the new Far Eastern order built by the Qi State, the Northern Ming Dynasty has become the leader of the entire Outer Northeast Region, fully enjoying the satisfaction of "all countries come to the court".

Although the territory occupied by the Bohai State is extremely vast, from the Sikhot-Alin Mountains in the east, to the vicinity of the Yenisei River in the west, to the Heilongjiang, Daxinganling, and Mobei in the south, and to the Lena River and the Angara River (east-west horizontal) in the north, covering an area of millions of square kilometers, the population under its jurisdiction is too small, and most of the territory cannot be actually controlled at all.

In this situation, the Bohai State has not had much desire to expand in recent years. The third-generation ruler Gualja Sangha was then prepared to adopt a policy of recuperation and recuperation, actively consolidating the internal foundation, vigorously carrying out domestic construction, stepping up immigration and encouraging the people to have more children, and trying to absorb the territory under his current control.

Nima's, running on a horse for a day or two, can't see any people, and then expand more territory, no one will fill it, but consume the national strength in vain, which seems to be a bit of a poor soldier, but it is not what a wise monarch should do.

It is true that the Qi people also said that if they do not take advantage of the inability of the Russians to defend the western territory, step up their westward expansion and extension, and strive to push the national border line to the Yenisei River, once the other side accumulates sufficient strength, it will definitely pose a serious threat to the Bohai State.

But the problem is that the supplies that the Qi people have provided to us are not enough to support our continued expansion, and as we advance further and further to the west, the supply line is also getting farther and farther, from the mouth of the Heilongjiang River to the Beihai region, the distance is more than 3,000 kilometers, even if many rivers along the way are used as transportation channels, but the water and land continue to be transferred alternately, and it will take at least two months to go down. Not to mention, from October to March of the following year, thousands of miles of ice are frozen, the rivers are frozen, and it is impossible to transport, and if the war is tight, it can only rely on its own accumulated materials to barely support.

Therefore, after decades of continuous expansion, the Bohai State wanted to take a breath and rest, rectify its internal affairs, and develop its withered and backward economy.

In order to develop the economy, in addition to continuing to ask for material assistance from Qi and Beiming, it is not necessary to dig deep into one's own potential, make full use of all kinds of resources it has, and exchange more money and materials from the outside.

In fact, there are still a lot of valuable things in the territory of the Bohai Kingdom. According to the reports given by the geological prospectors of the Qi country, it is pointed out that several rivers in the territory are rich in precious placer gold, and there are rich and diverse mineral deposits buried underground, and there are endless precious colored decorative stones in the mountains, as for the thick giant trees all over the mountains and all kinds of precious fur beasts in the forests, it is even more countless.

However, due to poor traffic conditions, these things are difficult to transport. In addition to the high-value, light-weight furs and placer gold, which could be sold by land and water to the merchants of Qi and the Northern Ming Dynasty, oh, there were also Qin merchants who traveled to and from Mobei, so as to exchange for a large number of military supplies and daily necessities, while those numerous minerals and tall and stout giant trees could only continue to sleep in the barren mountains and mountains.

A few years ago, the government of the Northern Ming Dynasty successively invested more than 1.5 million silver dollars to build a railway from Zhenzhou (now Vladivostok) to Shuangcheng (now Shuangchengzi) in Zhenzhou (now Primorsky Krai, Russia), which made Bohai Kingdom look hot.

The king of Bohai, Sangge, once tentatively asked the Qi people if they would be willing to help Bohai also build a railway, so as to connect its inland hinterland to Heilongjiang or Zhenzhou.

The people of Qi just asked a few words lightly, and then let Bohai Kingdom extinguish this thought.

What is the population of Bohai State?

How much money do you have?

How can you build a railway that is thousands of kilometers long?

You Bohai State simply don't have the strength to engage in such a big project!

You don't have to look at it, the geological and climatic conditions in the Bohai country are so complex, and the construction conditions are also extremely difficult, such as the wide rivers around the Beihai, the steep slopes along the way, the permafrost in the eastern part of Lingbei (Siberia), and the severe cold and heat all year round.

Think about it, more than 400,000 people are scattered in the vast Lingbei area, even if you can scrape together the money to build a railway, it will not be able to transport many people and materials, the input-output ratio is absolutely seriously unbalanced, and the annual operating costs alone can drag down your national finances.

Let's wait, when our Bohai country has developed for tens or hundreds of years, and has a certain population size and economic strength, we will consider such a grand project as the railway.

(End of chapter)