In June 1651, the ice floes near the mouth of the Heilongjiang River were rarely seen again, but the water still carried a bitter chill that made it difficult for everyone who came here to get used to it.

In fact, it is not only the newcomers who have difficulty adapting, but even Wang Shichuan, who has lived here for several years, feels that the winter here is too difficult, with heavy snow and intermittent transportation, and if there is not enough food, clothing or fuel for the winter, then it may be difficult to survive - after all, you can't cut wood in the freezing cold of minus 40 degrees Celsius and wear not warm clothes at all, like those Russian peasants, they are the remnants of the natural selection of the harsh climate of the Northland, but you are not.

"Life is not easy!" Wang Shichuan sighed, and secretly sighed in his heart that Heilongjiang, a ghost place, has very fertile land and rich products, but it is really too cold, compared to the warm hometown of Henan, it is really a heaven and an underground. However, Wang Shichuan himself did not regret it, because his family business had already fallen here: he not only owned 60 acres of regular farmland (the land of his and his wife) in the east of Miaojie Gangcheng, but also rented a vast pasture in the north of the city, and specially hired some bitter Ezo people who came from Dabo to make a living to graze, and he was also a small rich family in the local area.

With the gradual deepening of trade between the Heishui area and Denglai and Ningbo, leather, livestock, salted fish, medicinal herbs and other commodities from the north began to be exported to the south in large quantities. The profit is more than 400 yuan, which is worth the income of farming for many years. The arrival of rice, wheat, beans and other agricultural products from the south has also effectively depressed the high food prices in the local area for many years. This further attracted those bitter Shandan people in the mountains to come and take refuge, which caused the population of Miaojie Port to skyrocket, and the original simple city began to be overwhelmed.

In order to alleviate this situation and better manage the strategically important land at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, with the approval of Shao Shude, the leader of the Heishui Pioneer Team, the people of the east bank decided to "change the land and return the port to the stream", that is, to change the basic situation of the original temple street being self-governing by the local natives. It was transferred to the direct jurisdiction of the government of the Blackwater Pioneer Team, and at the same time 500 households were immigrated here. And Wang Shichuan and others were transferred from the Republic Village to serve as liuguan to govern the local civil affairs.

After more than a year of rectification, there are more than 4,800 residents in Miaojiegang and its suburbs, and the Ming people account for about 30%. Furthermore. With the development of the local economy, the Shandan people living in the middle and lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River became more and more popular, and under the guidance of their superiors, Wang Shichuan and others set up three new settlements in the vicinity before the winter of last year, which were located in Hamburg, near Parvo, Russia, a brick-built enclosure, named after the original 88 German wounded soldiers. Now Shao Shude has exiled many lawless elements (about six or seven hundred) from Denglai, Ningbo and other places, and the name "Hamburg" has been changed to a veritable name in Wang Shichuan's view.

Now Hamburg has a total of about 1,400 people from the Shandan people, Ming people and other ethnic groups who have settled and pioneered the land, and in the short term, they still need blood transfusion from the Blackwater Pioneer Team. But I believe that in a few years, it will be basically self-sufficient, and there will be no need for blood transfusions from the outside world.

Except for burgers. Wang Shichuan also built a new settlement, Shunyi Village, on the basis of a Shandan village on the east side of Qilia Lake. In the establishment of this settlement, the Shandan chieftain Balkin, who had originally served the people of the east coast, made a great effort, and this king personally went out to the native village with a load of twenty horses and goods (paid for by the Blackwater Pioneers). On the one hand, he acted as a fortune boy to form a good relationship, and on the other hand, he used his own personal experience to persuade one or two hundred fierce and warlike Shandan people here to vote. made great contributions to the development of the East Coast here, and was directly promoted to "section chief" by Shao Shude after returning.

In contrast to Hamburg and Shunyi, the last settlement was also built on an indigenous village. But the village didn't need to be convinced, they came to it on their own initiative - because their lives were so hard. The Feyaka tribe, located on the site of the former Peter Winter Camp (west of the Bay of Happiness) in later Russia, has less than 200 men, women and children, and lives by hunting and fishing on weekdays (fishing sea vegetables, picking up shells, shrimps and crabs for food supplementation in summer), with extremely low productivity levels, coupled with a relatively harsh natural environment, so its population has never been able to rise.

Kurhan, the former captain of the guard (security corps, with more than 470 elite scouts), was a Phyaka (Kyyak), but he was a Phyaka from the northern tip of Sakhalin Island across the sea. Because of the confession of the captured Siberian Cossack Pavlov, Kurhan has been transferred to the vicinity of Temple Street Port since last year, and with an expedition team composed of elite scouts of the security team, he began to wander around the nearby mountains, rivers, deep mountains and old forests. While drawing maps and expelling Russian scouts, they focused on visiting the indigenous tribes and bribing them to vote.

It was under these circumstances that the leaders of the tribe of Fiyaka took refuge with the people of the eastern coast, and the leaders of this tribe were dazzled by the goods brought by the Kurhan, such as liquor, tobacco, sugar, salt, metal knives, cotton coats, briquette stoves, etc., and while expressing their submission to the "great Khan of the eastern coast", they also reported to the Kurhan that the occasional outsiders from the sea came by ship near their village to spy on information.

Based on the situation described by the Fiyaks, Kurhan and others preliminarily judged that these "outsiders" were probably Siberian Cossacks, who should have come to spy on the intelligence of the Amur River valley on the orders of the Yakutsk overseers, and by the way, to levy troops and taxes from the natives. As for where they came from, it is likely that the city of Ayan farther north than this, where the Cossacks are said to have a camp, where there are many armed soldiers and serfs, and many natives who enslave them fish, hunt, and farm, which is more or less a threat.

Shao Shude, who received this information, attached great importance to it, and at that time he ordered the construction of a camp on the original site of this native village, and named it Zhenbei Fort. Meanwhile. He also retired the first batch of Polish soldiers who came to Shandong to fight (many of them were in their thirties and forties when they came, and now they are not suitable for fighting), and then placed them in a group to settle here. This totaled the arrival of 244 experienced Polish veterans. The fort of Zhenbei was greatly strengthened, so that the Cossacks did not want to get involved in it in the short term.

In November last year, the retired Polish veterans arrived at the port of Da Po by boat, and after hearing that the weather was getting worse in the north, the sea was rough and there was a large amount of ice floes, they took advantage of the situation and settled in Da Bo. It wasn't until mid-December that the sea ice froze and the group took a sled. From the sea, we traveled all the way north to Blackwater Harbor, where we spent the coldest winter. By the end of May after the beginning of spring this year. They took the shallow-water gunboat that transported supplies to the Heilongjiang River valley, arrived at Miaojie Port, and then changed horses again to go north, and at this moment they had almost arrived at Zhenbei Fort. Rendezvous with Kurhan's expedition.

"After several forts were built, the population grew and the defenses gradually increased. These bitter Shandan people, all of whom are good at hunting and fighting, and can endure hunger and hardship for a long time, are a good source of soldiers. It's just that the discipline is a little worse, but it doesn't matter, it will improve after a long period of training. If the Tartars can train these people out of discipline, won't we be able to do it? "Wang Shichuan has just returned from a patrol in the area east of Temple Street Port. Looking at the several shallow water gunboats of the "Amur" class moored on the pier, he secretly wondered in his heart.

As the supreme commander of the four townships in the Miaojie area, Wang Shichuan had just received an order from the south: Captain Chang Kaisheng, the commander-in-chief of the Heilongjiang Theater stationed in Boli Village and the commander of the army's 1st Company (who had arrived here from the mainland last year), who had been rotated back to China, had ordered him. Military mobilization was immediately carried out in several towns and villages near Miaojie, and young people of all ethnic groups who were skilled in warfare were dispatched to Miaojie Port for intensive training, ready to support the southern region at any time.

The reason for this order is mainly due to the fact that Boli Zhai received some unconfirmed rumors a while ago, that is, among the Daur, Hezhe, Oroqen and Mongols living in the middle reaches of the Amur River, the news that the Manchurian Bogd Khan had invited the Kingdom of Korea to attack the yellow-clothed Haikou together with the Rakshasas. The news spread with noses and eyes. Even how much money the Manchurian Emperor spent and how many benefits he promised in exchange for these two families sending troops is conclusive, as if he had experienced it himself.

Chang Kaisheng was skeptical of the news. But he didn't dare to slack off, so he immediately sent personnel to inquire about the news. If the Manchu Ningguta Zhangjingshaer Huda wanted to send troops to recruit the people on the east bank, then he had to recruit troops from the native tribes along the Amur River, otherwise he would really not be able to do anything with the only remaining Qian'er and 800 soldiers in Ningguta. But as long as the conscription is carried out, this news will inevitably not be hidden, and the various indigenous tribes living along the river have been communicating with each other for hundreds of years, and although they belong to Manchuria, the East Bank, and Russia, they are often inextricably linked, and the news will be known to everyone within a few days, and there is no secrecy at all in any large-scale military operation.

Chang Kaisheng's inquiry really inquired about something, such as the Rakshasa people were hospitalized by the envoys of Bogd Khan in a certain village; For example, the North Korean shotgunners arrived in the area of Ningguta along the river, and bought supplies in a certain village on the way; For example, a series of news about Sha'er Huda's beginning to collect grain and grass in various tribes, horses and mules, Ding Zhuangla, and so on were inquired about - these news were not deliberately concealed, and they could not be concealed from anyone.

Based on all kinds of information, Chang Kaisheng immediately judged that the Manchu Qing Dynasty was about to have a large-scale military operation in the near future, and the target was likely to be the old opponent Dong'an. After coming to this conclusion, Chang Kaisheng dared not slack off, he immediately wrote to the Heishui Pioneer Team to report the situation and ask for reinforcements, and also ordered the four villages of Temple Street and the Amur River to mobilize, hoard supplies, and gather young people to deal with any armed conflict that may come.

"It's time to send all the iron armor in Curry, and let the assembled Ding Zhuang practice the formation first, so as to save the rush when you really want to go into battle." Wang Shichuan made up his mind, and when he returned to the city, he would start to deal with the matter, because it was soon the most comfortable summer season of the year on the Amur River, and many local wars took place at this time, but there was no room for carelessness.

"Maybe the Tartar court is going to raise troops to attack my Boli Village." Wang Shichuan thought, "After all, what we are doing in the Amur River is not digging the roots of the Tartars?" The so-called Manchurian soldiers of the Tartars, since they entered the customs, although they could not go to war without fighting, there were still many people who were damaged in battle and died of disease. There are only a few of them in total, and there are only more than 140,000 people over the age of 15 and under the age of 60 in the Manchurian, Meng, and Han Eight Banners, and one less one dies. In the past, they were able to capture the Jurchens in the middle and lower reaches of the Amur River to replenish their losses, just as they had conquered the Saurons several times during the Huangtaiji period. But since my wise and martial Mo Dashuai decided to march into the Amur River and compete with the Manchus for the birth of the Jurchens, the supplementary troops of the Tartar court have been greatly reduced, and now it seems that they are finally in a hurry, and they are going to do something to us, hum, so far, I want to see, how can the Tartars deal with the invincible iron army on the east bank of my great east bank that has gained a firm foothold? (To be continued)