At the end of January 1651, Kushiro Port, clear.

This year, the weather was warm early, and the port of Kushiro was not opened until early February, as in previous years, but was lifted from the ice at the end of January -- in fact, the meteorological observation station of the East Coast Navy had already made a prediction, and they had spared no effort to collect various meteorological and hydrological figures for many years, and then compiled them into a book for the reference of various departments.

Two small steam ice-wicking boats, imported from mainland China by a Japanese company on the east coast, puffed black smoke and drove some drift ice in the center of the channel to the side to clear the way for a ship about to sail. The ship was a 450-ton deadweight ship transferred from the New China region, and was under the jurisdiction of the Navy's Far East Task Force, but for now, the ship was leased by Shao Shude to a Japanese company for transportation in the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, and the Liao Sea.

As a result of the steady economic development in the two years since the end of the war, there was a general optimism about the future of the economy on the East Coast - even among the officials of the Government Council - and as a result, they placed large orders for a considerable number of ocean-going vessels. For example, the South China Sea Transport Company had 42 flute-type carriers at the time, but they seemed to become redundant overnight after the number of goods exported fell sharply in the second half of 1650 (the danger caused by the tariff-raising campaign spearheaded by France and copied by several European city-states spread to the country).

As a result, the local Ministry of Communications hurriedly allocated a number of flute-type transport ships that exceeded its own capacity needs to New China and the Far East, on the one hand, to reduce its own burden, and on the other hand, to strengthen the maritime transportation force on the east coast of these areas. Like what. The local Ministry of Communications injected six surplus flute boats into the East African Transport Company of New China in the form of "capital injection". At the same time as occupying half of the shares (the other half of the shares are held by the New China Development Team). It also makes up for the shortage of capacity in New China - well, the real situation is that New China's capacity is somewhat excessive, but this is not a problem, with the gradual deepening of trade with the Ottomans and Persia, the demand for maritime capacity in this place will also increase day by day, so it should be invested in advance.

Xinhuaxia had a bunch of ships in its hands, and the Far East could not escape, and the mainland also stuffed the quota of two redundant flute-type transport ships here -- the specific operation method was to drive the ships to Xinhua Port on the mainland. The East African Transport Company joined the East African Transport Company on the spot, and the East African Transport Company sent two of its ships to the Far East to join the naval task force - which incidentally brought another thousand German mercenaries (1,019 men at the time of departure, 883 when they arrived at the port of Jiaozhou in mid-January 1651).

The Baobab, which is about to sail from Kushiro Port, is an "old ship" that sailed from New China many years ago, and is now leased by a Japanese company on the east coast, and its main route is Kushiro Port, Jeju Island, and Yantai. Now that Yantai is frozen, the Baobab's destination is Jeju, and the ship is carrying large quantities of refined coal, honeycomb coal, timber and dried fish. These are the few outputs of Kushiro Port, which is now struggling to get started, and the quality of the coal in this place is average, but the mining conditions are acceptable. It is the second coal-producing site in the East Coast Control Area in addition to Heishui Port; In addition, timber from the nearby forests, saury from the sea, and honeycomb coal, which is made from gangue and peat, are also important exports. Barely able to sustain the region's fragile pioneer economy.

After three years of development, there are now more than 7,000 men, women, and children in and out of the city, mainly potatoes, cattle, sheep, and seafood, and coal and timber exports in industry. This company, which aims to develop Ezo, will be able to turn a profit.

When the Japanese company was first established, Chen Shuo, who was in charge of the actual operation of the company, and his teacher and backstage Wei Boqiu, were so high-spirited, they planned to turn losses into profits within one to two years, and occupy Kushiro Port and its nearby boss area, and immigrate more than 20,000 people at the same time. But now it seems that they were really overly optimistic, and in the first year, Kushiro Port even moved more than 4,000 Ming people from the Qingzhou Prefecture in Shandong, but a sudden outbreak of epidemic at the end of the year caused it to lose a third of its staff in a short period of time. Then came the ensuing crisis of insufficient food, materials, and funds, and the Japanese companies on the East Coast seemed to be on the brink of life and death overnight.

At the critical moment, Shao Shu took the company's hand, and he transferred the 200,000 silver dollars of share capital that the Blackwater Pioneer Team should have paid successively within two years to the Japanese company's account, and at the same time recovered the more than 4,000 Qingzhou immigrants (five yuan/person) purchased by the East Coast Japanese Company at the same time - the Japanese company was too optimistic to absorb such a large population - so that it could travel lightly.

In this way, the Japanese company revised its original huge plan and began to work in Kushiro Port in a down-to-earth manner. Shao Shude, for his part, was also quite supportive of him, and continued to sell some of the trophies looted by the troops to Japanese companies, and at the same time vigorously purchased coal, the company's only export commodity at that time - for this reason, it was even stipulated that all civilian coal purchases in the Heishui area should be diverted to Japanese companies on the east coast -- of course, the coal used for marine use was still the better-quality Heishui refined coal, not the inferior Kushiro coal.

Under such many cares, the Japanese company on the east coast, a colonial company of Kang Caien, breathed a sigh of relief from the harsh environment and gradually gained a firm foothold in Ezo. After the second half of last year (1650), as Ningbo was gradually integrated into the Heishui Economic Circle, the market capacity at the hands of the people on the east coast was greatly expanded, and the sales prospects of coal and high-quality timber produced by the Kushiro coal mine were promising, so it quickly attracted more soldiers with spare money to invest in the long-term bonds issued by the company. Japanese companies with abundant funds suddenly trembled, and they began the second phase of Kushiro Port immigration to prepare for the replenishment of local manpower. to obtain greater benefits in the near future.

"Baobab" followed a strong northeasterly wind. It docked outside the port of Jeju on February 6. At this time, several well-maintained steam engine sailing ships had just been loaded on the island, carrying 1,500 Korean men and women and 3,000 Ming people. Get ready to head south to Australia in no time. In the winter, Jeju Island is an important departure base for migrants, and migrants from Shandong are basically temporarily moved here before the Liaohai Sea freezes, just as migrants from Omarari Prefecture on Sakhalin Island are temporarily transferred to the port of Yuanbo on Rishiri Island before the port freezes to wait for boarding.

More than 4,000 officers and men of the newly built First Army Division, which is stationed on Jeju Island, are still preparing for war in Dengju at the moment, but there is not the slightest sign of desertion on the streets of Jeju Prefecture: The relatives of the officers and men of the First Division, the families of craftsmen in weapons workshops outside the city, and farmers and herdsmen from ten miles and eight towns have crowded the small urban area.

There are many vendors on the streets, which shows the prosperity of this small island that has not heard of war for many years, and with the continuous immigration activities of the East Coast people for many years (selling some of the Koreans on the island to the Netherlands to develop the South Seas, and some of them immigrating to the East Coast mainland). At the same time, a large number of Ming Dynasty weapon craftsmen, craftsmen, Lang Zhong and some low-level scholars were moved to the island, and almost all the races on the island were changed. Nowadays, if you stand on the most prosperous "Navigation Avenue" in Jeju City, you will often hear various Chinese dialects, and Korean is less and less heard. Even the few North Koreans left on the island are now more willing to communicate in Chinese for a variety of reasons.

One of the most striking areas on the Navigation Avenue is now occupied by the Sun family with a deep background. On this relatively closed island, they are now directly playing the signboard of "Sun Chunyang South Store", instead of covering their ears and stealing bells. This shop, which aspires to be a "brand supermarket chain giant" (Wei Boqiu's words), has a very deep background and strong financial strength. So far, it has opened three stores in Yantai, Dengju and Jeju, and the income is not bad. At least there is some profit, no loss, which is not easy.

Now the Sun family is ambitious, planning to use the last part of the idle funds, plus the investment of other shareholders of the Heishui Pioneer Team, to open a store in Dabo County and Heishui County respectively, specializing in buying cheap and high-quality local seafood, furs and medicinal herbs, and then trafficking them back to the south to sell.

There are tens of thousands of residents in the four townships and towns of Dabo County, and there are many special products such as mountain goods, sea vegetables, crabs, saury, Far Eastern sardines, sea bream, squid, etc., and it is a good business to run it well; Heishui County - newly established at the end of October 1651, under the jurisdiction of Heishui Town (including coal mines, lumber yards, quarries including more than 5,000 residents), as well as Due Township (later Due Township), Xinmintun Township (later Mgagechi City), Heixiongling Township (later Hoe Town) including three new settlements - a total population of more than 8,000, including mink, red fox skin, green fox skin, deer antler, bear bile, herbs, salmon, coal, high-quality timber and other special products, but also a shipbuilding base, building materials production baseThe first stronghold of the Huangyi Army in the northeast sea of the Ming Dynasty, "Qiandi" and "Land of Longxing", the political significance and economic value cannot be underestimated, so it is natural to set up a store here.

The Heishui-Whale Sea region, led by Heishui County and Dabo County, is, in a sense, the foundation of the people on the east coast in the Far East, rather than places like Shandong and Zhejiang, which are on the front line and may have fierce disputes with the Central Plains Dynasty at any time. Only by vigorously developing these places, and at the same time constantly retiring to enrich the hukou, in the course of time, these places will surely become a solid backing for the East coasters to gain a foothold in the Far East - in a sense, the most reliable and only backing.

After unloading a large amount of honeycomb coal, timber (there is a shortage of wood on Jeju Island), refined coal, and salted fish (pickled saury), the Baobab flute ship loaded a large number of livestock (transported back to Kushiro Port for grazing), and planned to make another trip to Busan Port, where it would return to Kushiro Port after loading a batch of rice.

Just as they were about to leave, some interesting news came from the port of Busan in the north, and it quickly spread through the small streets and piers of Jeju Province. The content of the news is very shocking, and at the same time, it is also a little worrying that the Korean kingdom in the north has secretly sent nearly 1,000 men and horses (half of them musketeers armed with shotguns) to the Amur River valley at the invitation of the Manchus a while ago, as if intending to start a war with the Great East Bank.

Although this news has not been officially confirmed, everyone seems to believe that it is the truth, and the atmosphere in Busan County is currently delicate, and the North Korean county has ordered Kim Hong-beom to close his doors all day long, and he does not know what he is doing; Kim Go-gyu, the top official stationed there on the east coast, frequently convened meetings of his subordinates, and the atmosphere was extremely tense. If the current trend continues, there is no telling what will happen next. (To be continued......)