On November 4, 1649, strong winds were raging in the Tatar Strait and the waves were surging. Except for the large-scale sailboats on the east coast, any smaller ship sailing under such sea conditions is extremely dangerous. At this time, due to river water pouring in the dock of Heishui Port, some ice cubes have already emerged. In the following days, as the temperature continues to drop, these broken ice cubes will gradually collide and stick together, and eventually form a solid "earth" that seals the entire port tightly.

In order to avoid the damage to the hull by sea ice, a large number of ships that were originally anchored in the port during navigation have long disappeared. They either went south to Lishiri Island, Jeju Island for winter or participated in immigration transportation operations. Of course, these idle ships (mainly medium-sized fishing boats built by the Blackwater Shipyard) now have a better place to go, that is, Jiaozhou Fort (in Jiaozhou Bay), Ningbo Prefecture and Daishan Island, which have built a simple dock.

A sailboat with a displacement of about 250 tons turned a corner, and then encountered a strong headwind on the side of the Danan Cape (Crealion Cape) near Aniva Bay. Just as the sailors were rushing to adjust the sail truss, Wei Boqiu, who was riding the boat, temporarily ordered the docking and was preparing to stay here for a little while. Although the captain repeatedly told Wei Boqiu that the weather was abnormal recently, and the outside of Dabo Port could not be filled with ice and must be rushed back as soon as possible; Wei Boqiu still insisted on docking and was preparing to inspect a small settlement located here on the east coast.

This settlement is called Qingquanzhai, and is named after the clear and sweet clear springs in the valleys in the mountains and valleys behind. Most of the residents here are from Dongchang Prefecture, Shandong. They are all officers and soldiers who were eliminated from the minion army during the middle of the year. They have been resettled here for several months. They built villages here to farm farms. Shepherds and cattle are much better than fighting for life and death in front of them. In addition to farming, they also built a tall lighthouse at the top of the cape with the construction team sent by Dabo (mainly Qing army prisoners).

The lighthouse is made of bricks and cement transported from Heishui Port, with a fire and a large concave mirror. It can be seen far away in the dark night, which is very beneficial for the east coast ships passing through here. Therefore, there are both Japanese warm currents and part of the Okhotsk cold currents coming down from the north. The climate is complex, with strong winds and heavy fog. Therefore, the east coast ships sailing back and forth on the routes of Damo, Heishui and Miaojie must be extremely careful, otherwise they may unfortunately hit the reef or strand in the dark night.

However, although the sea conditions are complex, the climate on the shore is still mild. Qingquanzhai is located in the coastal valley of the Western Sahalin Mountains. There are continuous mountains on both sides of the east and west, producing a large amount of mountain goods. The plain terrain between the valleys is long and narrow in the north and south. The land is fertile, with an annual precipitation of about 1,000 mm, and the lowest temperature in winter is about minus 20 degrees Celsius, which is suitable for agricultural production activities.

The tonnage of the ship Wei Boqiu was riding was only 250 tons, imitating the earliest ship type of the East Coast Eagle. With the weak technical strength of the Blackwater Shipyard, building such a ship was already the limit of their current capabilities. After the ship was anchored near the sea, Wei Boqiu took a group of entourage guards to take several small boats and quickly boarded ashore.

Several cavalry rushed out soon after the Qingquan Village. There were also a series of panting infantrymen, who were wearing crooked leather armor and holding spears in their hands. It seemed that they were going to fight. However, after seeing the flag of the East Coast Republic of China hanging high on the mast of the ship and Wei Boqiu and others who were on the shore, they finally felt relieved. The leading middle-aged man rolled down from his horse, knelt down in front of Wei Boqiu on one knee, and said loudly: "The head of Qingquan Township, Xiaguan Dabo County, Lin Dengwan, the head of the Qingquan Detachment of the Dabo Guards, has seen the deputy captain! I don't know that Deputy Captain Wei is coming today, and he is in a far-reaching welcome. I hope Lord Wei will be willing to accept it."

Wei Boqiu nodded and waved his hand to let Lin Dengwan get up. Then he asked about the reclamation situation here. In Wei Boqiu's plan, the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Hokkien land were the areas under the jurisdiction of the Blackwater Development Team to focus on development. The climate here is not as fierce as the north, but the land is as fertile, so it has high development value.

This year, the grains of the four villages of Amur River, Dabo, Nankuye Reclamation Bureau, as well as the two prefectures of Shandong Denglai have all achieved bumper harvests to varying degrees. In addition, the army on the east coast almost wiped out the Changping warehouses of the four prefectures of Shandong and East China, and most of the grains in the fields have been harvested. To be honest, there are still a lot of grains in the hands of the Hei Shui Development Team government. Currently, some of them are located on Zhifu Island, Kongtong Island and Yangma Island behind Yantai Fort, and some are stored on Liji Island (winter immigration transfer distribution center).

Since the grain reserves are at its most abundant time in several years, Wei Boqiu naturally had the idea of ​​vigorously developing the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Hokkien land, and it was officially implemented in the middle of this year after obtaining Shao Shude's consent. The first step is to develop new settlements on the basis of enriching the population of the original settlements (mainly the central towns of Hei Shui, Dabo and Kushiro). Anyway, people on the east coast firmly grasp the sea control rights of this sea control area, and it seems that this sea control rights will continue to be controlled for many years, so it doesn't matter if the settlements are scattered, because there are no foreign enemies at all. In addition, the so-called settlers who have been resettled were mostly soldiers who were unable to fight in the "rebels" of the Qing Dynasty who were eliminated from the front line - most of them were mud legs wrapped in them - so they would not have no resistance.

There was originally only one naval meteorological observation center in Qingquan Village, with a few people stationed to record and observe the climate data of the nearby sea surface over the year. However, after the launch of the development plan, Shandong transported a group of Ding Mingwu soldiers who were eliminated here, and appointed one of the leaders Lin Dengwan as the town head here, and officially started reclamation in the mountain valley near Danan Point. After that, the Shandong front line arranged some injured soldiers to be resettled here, with about dozens of people.

"The most land in the countryside is Old Man Bao. His family has 100 acres of land, including 60 acres of arable land and 40 acres of forests. People come early and the land does not need to be cleaned up. Now the vegetables he grows have grown, and this year's investment is probably a lot. Unlike us, we are still eating relief grains, and we have to borrow seeds, farm tools and livestock from the money house (Northwest Reclamation Bank) to buy seeds, farm tools and livestock, etc., which cannot be compared." Hearing Wei Boqiu's inquiry, Lin Dengwan immediately started to talk like an old farmer, his words full of envy of "Old Man Bao".

"Old Man Bao" is named Paulchinsky. He is a Polish mercenary. He is in his forties and has experienced countless battle formations in his life. He has fought with the Ottomans, the Tatars, the Russians, and the Swedes. He was even briefly hired by the German princes and participated in the Thirty Years War for a while. His legendary experience can almost write a book. Unexpectedly, when he was about to end his wandering, he settled in a place like Sakhalin Island, a place 100,800 miles away. The magic of the world is this.

Paulchinsky was accidentally injured in the battle to attack Qingzhou City. Although he was not as lacking arms and legs as some of his comrades, his injuries were not light and he had no choice but to retire. He was arranged by his superiors to settle down in Qingquan Township, Dabo County. Since the name written in the household registration document submitted by Shandong was Baoerchin (the Chinese name was unified and forced to be changed after naturalization), the rest of Qingquan Township called Lao Baotou. Lao Baotou was a "famous citizen", which is the so-called injury.

The remaining veterans, in addition to receiving large severance payments, the government also gave him 50 acres of land (thirty acres of arable land and twenty acres of forests) for free. His newly married Shandong wife also obtained 50 acres of land for free - a few cattle and sheep, some metal farm tools and grain. In addition, the construction team that came to build the lighthouse also built a set of brick and tile houses in the east coast for his family, which was a treatment that no one else in the village had. It was extremely generous and enviable.

"Old Baotou grows mostly vegetables and grains this year, thanks to God's blessing, and its growth is pretty good. Especially those potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc., which grow very well. A mu of land is probably not able to collect hundreds of kilograms, which is really scary. The cabbage is not growing very well, there are too many insects, and the yield is greatly affected; cucumbers are also relatively bad. In summer and autumn, the fog is too heavy at night. The several acres of cucumbers planted by Lao Baotou's home are attacked by the fog, and the leaves are rusted and dead in the whole night. Originally, Lao Baotou planned to sell all these cucumbers to immigrant boats to make money, but now it seems that they have been completely ruined." Speaking of this, Lin Dengwan smiled a little unkindly. It seems that he is jealous of Lao Baotou's "richest man" in the village.

Lindenwan said that cucumbers were attacked by fog, and Wei Boqiu also heard about it. The reason is that this cucumber is actually a Russian-grown cucumber (Murmeric cucumber) obtained by the indigenous people of the Amur River from the Amur River. Its fog resistance is poor. However, the Chinese cucumber, known as the "Southern Barbarian cucumber" by the indigenous people of the Amur River, has much stronger fog resistance and is even thicker in size, which is worthy of large-scale promotion and cultivation among local farmers.

While listening to Lin Dengwan's introduction, Wei Boqiu walked towards the village. As soon as they landed on the shore, someone had already run back to the village, asking the people left behind in the township government to immediately clean up the bear he had just hunted. Qingquan Village is located in a mountain valley, with deep mountains and forests on both sides. There are a large number of brown bears, which has almost become a disaster. Therefore, the township government often organizes musketeers to go to the mountains to hunt bears. At this time, Wei Boqiu was a coincidence. They just hunted a bear that had not yet hibernated this morning. Before they could deal with it, Wei Boqiu arrived. This is a blessing. (To be continued)
Chapter completed!