Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 300 Agricultural Adjustment on Beiying Island

Actually, the cold winter is the best time to travel in Beiying Island.

When snow covers swamps and gullies, the frozen snow surface becomes a natural road.

The white breath exhaled by three or five strong sled dogs condensed into frost in the air as they dragged birch sleds across the snowfield, drawing graceful arcs.

This transport vehicle, improved by the local Ainu people and equipped with a harness designed by the new Chinese, can run swiftly across the snow at a speed of 15-20 kilometers per hour, covering 40-60 kilometers a day (considering the dog's stamina, snow conditions, and road conditions), which is much faster than traveling by boat on the river in summer.

Of course, this is on the premise that you can withstand the biting cold wind and frigid temperatures.

Qi Yongze chose to travel at this time because the temperature was not as cold as in winter. After wrapping himself in several layers of fur, he could still barely withstand the cold wind while riding the sled.

Around noon, the group arrived at Linyi Fort (now Fengqing Town), rested for a while, ate a hot pot meal, and then continued their journey.

Around 6 p.m., they successfully reached Xiajinbao (now Otsu Port Town).

According to the division of labor among the management of the colonization team, Wei Zhonglong was mainly responsible for the development of the Xinchuan area (now the Ishikari River Plain), as well as exploring the northeastern coastal areas, and establishing several strongholds there when the opportunity arose, extending Xinhua's influence to the Ussuri River basin.

He was responsible for the deep colonization of the coastal areas, the Okawa Plain (now Tokachi River Plain), and the northern part of Hokkaido, as well as the integration of local forces (indigenous peoples). He also presided over the exploration and development of new territories such as Sakhalin Island, the Nagare Peninsula (now Kamchatka Peninsula), and the Kirishima Islands (now Kuril Islands), expanding Xinhua's influence to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

After more than five years of development, the population controlled by the Beiying Island Colonization Team has exceeded 35,000 (of which more than 24,000 are Han Chinese immigrants), which is almost the same as the local population of Xinzhou.

Although this small population, within the territory of the Ming Dynasty, is not even comparable to the population of an ordinary coastal county.

However, these 30,000-plus people constitute an extremely powerful force in the sparsely populated areas of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, and even Outer Northeast.

With an expedition of only seventy-odd people, Tsarist Russian colonial leader Khabarov marched from Yakutsk all the way to the Heilongjiang River basin and built a colonial outpost in Yaksa, controlling the indigenous tribes within a radius of hundreds of miles.

Therefore, two years ago, the Beiying Island Colonization Team established a base at the southern tip of Sakhalin Island and Chiyan Island (now Kunashir Island) to collect local fur resources. As the population under their control gradually became "surplus", the two colonization team leaders, who had a strong desire for possession, began to carry out a frenzied land grabbing activity.

Following Fushun Fort (now Korsakov) at the southern tip of Sakhalin Island, the Beiying Island colonization team established two more outposts on the western coast of the island: Beining Fort (now Nevelsk) and Jing'an Fort (now Kholmsk Port), and a wooden stockade at Liuhe Fort (now Polonesk) on the eastern coast.

Dongan Fort (now Kurilsk, south of Kunashir Island) was established on Chiyan Island.

Anping Fort (now Kurilsk town) was established on Wuyin Island (now Etorofu Island).

The aforementioned strongholds had a small number of people. Apart from Fushun Fort, which had more than sixty people, the other forts and villages each had only twenty or thirty people. Their main purpose was to collect local furs, while also recruiting nearby natives and trying to bring them all under Xinhua's rule.

Of course, this move also carries the implication of asserting sovereignty, erecting monuments and marking the occupied land with the mark of "since ancient times".

The colonization team wasn't incapable of providing more immigrants, but they were worried about a severe shortage of food and supplies.

Despite the fact that the Beiying Island colonization team had been developing and building for five years, it had not yet achieved true food self-sufficiency and needed to import large quantities of rice and grains from outside every year to supply the growing immigrant population.

It's quite a sad story. The Wochuan Plain and Xinchuan Plain on Beiying Island are crisscrossed by rivers and have fertile land. They seem to be extremely auspicious places for agriculture.

If developed further, these areas could potentially support millions of people, and in later generations, they would become Hokkaido's most important grain-producing regions.

However, the biggest problem plaguing agricultural production on Beiying Island is the insufficient accumulated temperature throughout the year, which slows down the growth of crops and prevents them from ripening.

Rice, for example, requires an annual accumulated temperature of 2000-3000 degrees Celsius above 10 degrees Celsius to grow normally. If the accumulated temperature is insufficient, heading will be delayed, and low temperatures during the grain-filling stage will lead to a significant reduction in yield. Corn, on the other hand, requires an annual accumulated temperature of 1800-2600 degrees Celsius. If the accumulated temperature is less than 200 degrees Celsius, the moisture content of the grains will increase by 30%, and both quality and yield will decline sharply.

Besides human error, another important reason for the large-scale famine that broke out in northern China during the Ming Dynasty was natural disaster.

Under the influence of the Little Ice Age, various extreme weather events occurred throughout the northern region, and the annual accumulated temperature decreased by 200-300 degrees Celsius. This caused the northern boundary of wheat cultivation to shift southward by hundreds of kilometers, which in turn led to a large-scale reduction in grain production and ultimately resulted in widespread famine.

Although Beiying Island is affected by the marine environment and its temperature is slightly higher than that of Jilin and Heilongjiang at the same latitude, the annual accumulated temperature still does not exceed 2000 degrees, and is about 1600-1800 degrees. This leads to extremely severe challenges for local agricultural production.

In the first two or three years of colonization, the grain yield on Beiying Island was very low. Even potatoes and corn, which are known for their high yields, had a poor harvest.

The management of the colonization team, who were not very familiar with agricultural production, thought that the land they were cultivating was all woodland and swamp, which lacked fertility, which was why the agricultural harvest was low.

However, after large-scale development of the fertile Wochuan region, it was found that grain yields were still not ideal, which immediately made people feel that this situation was extremely abnormal.

After gathering a group of experienced farmers from the Ming Dynasty and Korea (in order to reduce losses during the immigration process, the previous criteria for selecting immigrants were mainly young and strong), the management of the colonization team finally realized their mistake.

High-yield crops such as potatoes and corn are not suitable for planting in every place!

In later generations, Hokkaido, as Japan's granary, has seen its crops such as rice, wheat, potatoes, and corn undergo decades of cultivation and improvement, transforming them into early-maturing and cold-resistant varieties (with shorter growing seasons and lower tolerance to low temperatures), thus enabling large-scale bumper harvests and increased production.

Later, after spending more time in contact with the Matsumae Domain, the colony management learned that the Matsumae clan had tried planting rice around Fukuyama Castle decades ago, and that they were using the "early-maturing" variety brought from Honshu.

但受限于年均气温仅6-7度（比本州低3-4度），使得稻穗空壳率高达70%，亩产不足一石。

Moreover, the fields were frequently attacked by severe cold, causing the hard-won experimental fields to be completely destroyed.

As for wheat, the Matsumae Domain also introduced winter wheat from the Tsugaru Domain in 1624, but after three consecutive years of crop failure, it completely abandoned the project.

Now, the Matsumae Domain can only honestly grow barley, which is more cold-resistant, and no longer considers anything else.

After understanding the principles of crop development, Wei and Qi followed the advice of the old farmer and stopped relying solely on the role of imported high-yield crops, and attached great importance to agricultural production methods adapted to local conditions.

Based on the climate of Beiying Island, while gradually improving and cultivating various cold-resistant and early-maturing crops, we are also actively introducing cold-resistant crops such as barley, rye, and buckwheat. We should not neglect the native crops planted by the local indigenous people, such as root vegetables (taro, Jerusalem artichoke), grains (barnyard grass, millet), beans (red beans), and turnips, and appropriately expand and promote them.

In addition, the cannabis cultivated in the Matsumae Domain can also be used as a reference, with its fibers used to make fishing nets and ropes.

It is said that they also sent hemp fiber as tribute to Edo every year to present to the shogun, about 200 bundles (one bundle weighs close to 10 kilograms) each year.

At the same time, in the process of using volcanic ash to fertilize the fields, we can also learn from the indigenous people and bury the herring entrails that were previously discarded into the farmland to further increase soil fertility (increase soil phosphorus content).
In other words, after several years of detours, the agricultural development of Beiying Island began a comprehensive adjustment and transformation two years ago. In addition to retaining a certain scale of experimental fields, the crops such as potatoes, corn, and wheat that were once highly anticipated were completely replaced with various cold-resistant crops in order to adapt to the local climate with low accumulated temperature.

With insufficient food to meet their own needs, the colonization teams, despite their strong desire to expand, could only adopt the small-scale settlement method they were currently using. They would set up trading posts along the coast or near the mouths of rivers in the newly acquired lands, build a simple earthen and wooden village, and station a small number of people there. They would exchange ironware, salt, and cloth for goods such as furs and gold dust from the local natives, and then collect them on Beiying Island to resell them to the Ming Dynasty.

After gradually gathering the local inhabitants near the trading post, a formal settlement can be established there, bringing the surrounding territories under the rule of Xinhua.

That night, Qi Yongze wrote a letter to Wei Zhonglong under the oil lamp: "Therefore, the way of colonization is not through rapid attacks, but through gradual advances. Now we feed our soldiers and civilians with furs and trade for grain. When the cold rice is ripe, that will be the time for us to sweep across the northern border."

Colonization is ultimately a difficult and lengthy process.
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(End of this chapter)