January 15, 1652, Takamatari Port, Rishiri Island, light snow.

Accompanied by the flute-type transport ship "Baobab", the old man-class "Galician Exocet" slowly docked at the dock of Yuanbo Port. They struggled to find a good spot to anchor, and there were so many medium-sized fishing boats moored in Guy Harbor that the dock officials had to urgently mobilize sailors to move some of the smaller boats, and only then did they release the two large ships of several hundred tons.

The biting northwest wind outside the harbor was blowing incessantly, and although the mighty of the surging sea water was offset by the shoreline and the breakwater, it still created a lot of swells in Yuanbo Harbor, which made everyone who was getting on and off the boat feel quite inconvenient - it was a great time to fall into the sea at this time, after all, no one can guarantee that you will not freeze into a popsicle when you are fished out of the harbor. If it weren't for the influence of a branch of Japan's warm current, the island would have frozen as hard as the coastline of Ezo, Sakhalin, and the outer Tohoku coast.

Liang Xiangjian and Tang Mengxu, who had just been transferred from the mainland to the Far East to "gild" -- oh, wrongly, it was work -- wore thick leather coats and got off the boat like two frozen quails, and then went to the city to warm up in their residences surrounded by the local township chief and the captain of the garrison who had come to greet them.

After so many years of vigorous operation, the construction achievements of Yuanbo Port are still quite impressive. Liang Xiangjian and the others looked all the way, but saw that the cross street in the center of the city was full of houses and shops, and even though the weather was very cold, pedestrians were still common on the street. It's a city that thrives on immigrants. Every year in November, the sea off the coast of Heishui and Dabo counties begins to freeze. Migrant transport ships began to gather on Rishiri Island. Repatriation of migrants stranded in resettlement camps outside Yuanbo Port. The island also has a medium-sized ship repair yard that stocks a large number of sails, cables, spears, ship boards, tar, mechanical parts and other equipment and spare parts, and a large amount of washed coal - mostly black water coal, and a few Kushiro coal - is stacked on the freight yard next door.

And it is precisely because there are a large number of floating people coming in and out of this island every year (waiting to be transported) that the commercial prosperity of this island has naturally been born. After all, thousands of migrants gather here in the middle of each year, and during the six months they are stranded, they also have to work (logging, building roads, building houses, plowing the land, digging ditches, rubbing ropes, weaving nets, etc.). have a meager salary), usually will consume some goods for themselves or their families, not to mention that in addition to them, there are a large number of sailors and soldiers with high spending power, these strong demand naturally gave birth to the vigorous development of local commerce, and some craftsmen made a fortune, changed their "black five" status in the Ming Dynasty, and jumped into the middle class of the city.

The city's commercial prosperity has also indirectly increased the productivity of Rishiri Island, and the salmon and saury fishing industry on Rishiri Island has developed rapidly due to the large demand (mainly military demand) from Denglai and Ningbo. Even many fishing boats registered at Blackwater, Omarari and Temple Street go south to Rishiri Island in winter, as the harbor is not frozen all year round. They can also venture out to sea to catch some of the autumn and winter fishing seasons when they appear.

Last year (1651), throughout last year (1651), various types of fishing boats on Rishiri Island were located east of Ezo (located at the intersection of the Kuroshio Warm Current and the Cold Current, and the fishing season is generally in winter), northwest Kyushu Island (from December to February). Several discovered fisheries, including the Aomori-Fukushima line on Honshu Island (from March to August) and the Okushiri Island Fishery (from July to August), have caught more than 2,400 tons of Pacific squids, a staggering yield. In addition, there are some small-scale spear squid and softfish catches, but their catches are not at the same level as those of Pacific softfish, but they are only dozens of tons, and residents around the country have not formed the habit of buying them.

Of course, compared to cephalopods, the largest annual catch in the blackwater region of the east coast is still pelagic small fish, mainly saury. This pelagic fish, which has climbed to more than 4,000 tonnes a year, has become the de facto mainstay of Blackwater seafood, and all kinds of pickled fish, canned salted fish, smoked fish and other foods are made from saury.

In today's Denglai in Shandong, the local garrison on the east coast also has a saury to accompany the meal every meal, which is almost standard. Under the leadership of soldiers and officials, especially the trend brought about by the return of some soldiers to their hometowns and the division of land, coupled with the influx of cheap seafood into Shandong, the acceptance of saury by the people is also increasing day by day. At least in Penglai, Yantai, Fushan, Ninghai, Weihai, Jiaozhou, Zhaoyuan and other counties in Shandong, many residents have gradually developed the habit of consuming saury, and will buy a few catties to eat from time to time, which has also greatly promoted the development of offshore fishing in the Heishui area.

Stimulated by the high profits of inshore fishing, some people who are willing to venture out have taken the initiative to apply to move to Sakhalin Island and Ezo and engage in seafood fishing, which has greatly enriched the fishing market on the east coast and increased fishery production. Of course, due to some conceptual factors, there are not too many people who dare to go to sea and venture into the world, and in addition, there are very few contradictions between people and land in Denglai, and most people are reluctant to move, so there are not many people who have moved to Sakhalin. And without people, there will be no fishery production, which is a very clear problem in the upper echelons of the east coast, and Wei Boqiu, who is in charge of the economic work of the black water, even plans to go to the overpopulated North Korea to bring some fishermen over in order to increase the fishery production of the black water.

All in all, the East Coast Fishing Fleet, which has grown to more than 80 medium-sized fishing vessels (with a standard displacement of 150 tons, and sometimes large naval vessels also participate in fishing activities during the flood season to increase production), catches more than 10,000 tons of seafood every year in the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the coastal waters of the eastern part of the Japanese archipelago.

Among them, the largest production of saury is 4 200 tons, followed by cephalopods including Pacific squid with about 2500 tons; Next is salmon (mainly salmon), which is mainly caught in offshore and inland waterways, and the annual production of high-fat, high-protein cold-water fish has gradually climbed to about 1,600 tons in recent years; Below salmon is the Far Eastern sardine, the production of this fish fluctuates greatly, because once a large school of fish is found, the output of the year can often soar to one or two thousand tons, if the bad luck is not found, the output is often only a few dozen tons to hundreds of tons; In addition, the output of other seafood such as swordfish, soft fish, shrimp and crab is not large, and the bits and pieces add up to only 100 tons a year, which is not worth mentioning.

It is worth mentioning that these cold-water fish, caught in the waters of the Northwest Pacific, are high in fat and are far from comparable to the warm-water fish of the South or the freshwater fish of inland rivers. Therefore, eating this fish is more "hungry" because it is rich in nutrients (warm-water or freshwater fish have only one-tenth to one-tenth of the calories per weight of grains, so it is impossible to survive by eating fish alone).

Now that the Battle of Ningbo is imminent, after Liu Haiyang's military action was approved by Shao Shude, the war planes in the entire Heishui region have been quietly activated. The military side is the responsibility of the Southern Theater, but the logistics part will be supported by the northern side as appropriate. For example, Liang Xiangjian and Tang Mengxu came to Rishiri Island this time to transport away a large amount of seafood accumulated here, and the destination was Ningbo Dinghai Port.

The mayor of Yuanbo Port also knew the intention of the two, so he took them directly to several large ice cellars in the city, where barrels of processed seafood were piled up, including salmon, saury, sardines (canned), Pacific squid, and so on.

"There are signs on the outside of the fish in the barrels, each barrel is unified with 500 catties, and there are a total of 2,803 barrels of stock in these ice cellars, I can only take away 2,000 barrels for the two adults at most, and the rest will be kept for emergencies." The township chief looked at the two Shangguan and said cautiously: "There is still quite a lot of stock in the ice cellars of Dabo, Heishui, and Temple Street, and Dabo Port will be thawed in April, and you can send a ship there to transfer it at that time." In addition, the Japanese company also built an underground ice cellar in Kushiro Port last year, and there may be some frozen fish and frozen meat in it, but it costs money to buy it......

"Okay, okay, I won't empty your family." Liang Xiangjian waved his hand impatiently at the township chief and said, "Just transfer 2,000 barrels from you, and the procedures will be completed for you in a while." In addition, you will send me a thousand men from the city, and I have heard that the goats, wild boars, moose, roe deer, and cattle that were grazing on Rebun Island have been flooded, and we will stay here for ten days and a half, and take advantage of this time to organize hunting on the main island (Rishiri Island), Rebun Island, and Okushiri Island, and save some good meat to take away on ships. The Great War in the South is imminent, and the soldiers are very expensive, and this meat is indispensable. ”

"That's fine!" The township chief immediately patted his chest and promised, "A thousand people, more than half of whom are skilled Shandan hunters, half a month is definitely enough to catch dozens or hundreds of tons of good meat." In fact, we still have dozens of tons of high-quality ham in our warehouse, and if the two adults need it, they can take it together, as long as the procedures are complete and the small difference can be made. ”

"Count on you, kid has a heart." Liang Xiangjian patted the township chief's shoulder with a big grin and praised. (To be continued......) R1292