The 250-ton displacement of the Kuril Islands armed transport ship sailed gracefully on the wide Amur River surface.

This is the fifth ship of the classic ship type of the Blackwater Shipyard "Jacsa" class armed transport. It has just been launched for a few months. Strictly speaking, it is still in the sea trial stage. However, the interior of this ship that has been leased by Taiwan Bank for a long time has been newly decorated by Shao Shuguang, the bank's executive vice general manager, and used as his own ship.

The ship's cabin was slightly changed. Not only did it add a well-decorated room, but the restaurant next door also had a rough set up a bar, wine cabinet and other facilities. In addition, a piano produced by the local sea engraving musical instrument factory was fixed in the corner. This semi-handmade luxury goods are so expensive in the local area, and only a few local tycoons can afford it. There are all waiters, chefs, musicians and other personnel. This shows how luxurious life is in Shao Shuguang, the general manager of the Taiwan Bank, is now taken for granted by Han Dezhi.

The people who will sit in front of the bar and drink with Han Dezhi, trusted Black Water Development Team captain Liao Xiaoyao. They sipped the finest wine produced in Yantai and talked about the future development of the Black Water region.

"Now the whaling industry in Heixiazi Port is becoming popular. A few whales can be caught every year, and they are basically processed on site. The former Blackwater Development Team government has set up a seafood processing factory there, which specializes in processing whale skin, whale oil, whale meat, and some pollocks, salmon, sardines, flounder, squid, shrimps and crabs caught are mostly processed there. Dabo County has regular ships transporting grains and other daily necessities to Heixia Port every year, and bringing back the seafood and mountain goods there to the south for sale. The scale of the business is not big or small, so I can only say it is OK. In addition, there is still season in Oha County.

The sea beast hunting, reindeer breeding and small-scale fishing industry are more than enough to support the very few people there, but grains and vegetables also need to be imported from Dabo County. The current areas of Dabo County and Nankuye Reclamation Bureau are probably the barns and vegetable baskets on the entire island." Liao Xiaoyao sat in front of the bar, drinking a little wine comfortably, and said slowly. After learning that he was about to be transferred to the position of captain of the Black Water Development Team, he also took the time to sort out the information about Sakhalin Island and Amur River that he had come into contact with, and had some in-depth understanding, so he could talk to Han Dezhi at this time.

The population growth rate on Sakhalin Island has been quite slow in recent years. Perhaps the potential of the indigenous population in the mountains has been exhausted. The total population of Dabo, Heishui, Picheng, and Oja has not exceeded 40,000 (excluding temporary resettlement immigrants), which is also worrying. Regional Commissioner Liang Xiangjian almost wanted to send out the exiled prisoners to this point without any external immigrants. Because of this, this time, he saw five "Yaksha"-class transport ships carrying more than 400 Portuguese people. After captives from India, he immediately intercepted them with shameless face and planned to place these people in two newly established settlements within the jurisdiction of the Nankuye Reclamation Bureau, namely Huashu Township, near the town of Sokor in later generations, and Jinman Township, near the town of Staro Dubskoye in later generations.

"I plan to draw outstanding personnel from the entire army, supplemented by some scouts from the natives who are familiar with local geography and social conditions, and conduct colonial explorations on the left and right sides of the Amur River. The focus is on searching and registering indigenous settlements to facilitate the future rule of large areas of natives living in nearby mountains." Liao Xiaoyao expressed his thoughts confidently, with very clear ideas and very clear goals.

By the way, Liao Xiaoyao's move will undoubtedly change the policy that had always been the main colonial route of great rivers. However, it is no wonder that you have not established any rule here before, and there is no decent influence. When the indigenous people didn't know you very well, it was right and reasonable for you to do so. But after establishing colonial rule in the Amur River Basin for so long and accumulating considerable strength at hand, it seems a bit out of place to be so low-key. After all, you have defeated the Qing Dynasty Bogde Khan and Tsarist Cossacks many times through military operations, proving your own force, and establishing a certain commercial order through strong productivity. Now you don't have to shrink anymore, but go directly to the front and rule the natives in the vast nearby areas.

A fleet of five "Yaksa"-class sailboats arrived at the estuary of the Amur River on August 3. The "Yaksa" filled with Nanyang rice took the lead. The captain steadily crossed the deep water channel and entered the wide Amur River with a lighthouse and apart from the shallows of the estuary. Seeing this, the other four ships followed behind and slowly sailed towards Miaojie Port on the north bank of the river.

The "Yaksa" and the "Nebchu" are anchored in the port and are preparing to trade here. Three other ships, including the "Kurched Islands", will go up the main channel of the Amur River and trade to cities upstream. At the same time, some building materials, coal and military supplies will be sent to ports along the way - transporting building materials. Coal and military supplies are not profitable. However, as a responsible large syndicate enterprise, the Taiwan Bank naturally needs to strongly support the national defense cause. Therefore, if there is no ship, a certain cabin must be set up to transport these materials. This is also one of the conditions for the Okhotsk Sea Squadron to hand over all five armed transport ships to Taiwan Bank for lease.

Han Dezhi and others headed to the upstream, while Liao Xiaoyao got off the boat at Miaojie Port, and then surrounded by his entourage, he moved directly into the government compound in the county. The county magistrate of Miaojie and Amur River Security Commander Wang Shichuan had just been told about the new personnel appointment of the Black Water Development Team, so he immediately ran to Liao Xiaoyao, looking down and listening to the instructions, which made Liao feel secretly happy.

"Mr. Wang, I see that the market in Miaojie County is becoming more and more prosperous. Why, are there many natives coming to trade with each other?" Liao Xiaoyao sat on a big bearskin chair (this is probably Wang Shichuan's throne), fiddling with an exquisite knife on the table, and asked with a smile.

Next to them were more than a dozen young staff officers, secretary and guards who followed him from the Southern War Zone Command. They nodded and greeted Wang Shichuan in kindness, and then commanded the Feiyaka guards who were standing there stupidly at the door, asking them to go to the dock to move Commander Liao's guys in. The guards' emotional intelligence seemed to be nowhere near. This might be the common characteristic of the natives in the Amur River Basin. They saw them looking at Wang Shichuan who was standing there respectfully. After obtaining permission, they rushed towards the dock. While walking, they also called other guards in the courtyard to help.

"Commander Liao, Miaojie County has a population of more than 9,000 so far, distributed in a vast area of ​​dozens of kilometers in the north bank of the Amur River. Perhaps it is nothing in the local area and even the Ming Dynasty, but in this bitter and cold place, it is definitely a first-class city and famous city, which has attracted a large number of Shandan people to trade with each other." Wang Shichuan took out a thick stack of books from the file cabinet next to him. After turning to one of the pages, he pointed to Liao Xiaoyao and said: "In fact, the Ministry of Justice is planning to organize people to go to various townships to conduct a new census. The people below repeatedly reported that in recent years, a large number of Jurchen tribes have moved to our townships to settle down near our townships, and have had a lot of disputes with our tribes who are fishing and hunting in the local area. These natives are fierce by nature and do not say a word.

The joint fights with life and death, and the public security risks are quite great. The idea of ​​the Ministry of Justice is to gather these people together, explain the righteousness to them, ask them to be loyal to our East Coast, pay taxes, and undertake a certain degree of military service and labor, and from then on, it will be used for our East Coast. Of course, the northeast is vast and sparsely populated, with mountains and dense old forests, and many places must not be uninhabited. Therefore, I plan to place some of the tribes on various roads west of Miaojie County, set up a village every distance, build this transportation and supply network first, and extend our power step by step. Well, at present, I have arranged the first thirteen villages, with more than 800 Shandan residents, and plan to extend our power to the Wudihe area..."

"Wudi River, such a great spirit." Liao Xiaoyao stood up with a snap, walked to the hand-drawn map hanging on the wall, pointed to the winding river on the map, and said, "This is the mouth of the Wudi River you have been to by boat? It is almost a few hundred kilometers away from the county town. This is really a place to grab land. I remember there is a stronghold established by the Russians, called Wudi Castle, right? Well, if you want to swallow the vast land between Wudi Castle and Miaojie County, you have to fight for the natives in the mountains. The environment there is complex and it is not easy to give full play to our advantages. Wherever these natives fall, the land will be controlled. Well, the agreement with the Russians was too vague at the beginning. I only talked about the division of the Amur River basin, and not talked about the division of the seemingly deserted mountains in the north. It was really a mistake."
Chapter completed!