Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 411 Sakhalin Island (Part Two)
On August 14, the two sister ships "Yuanwang" arrived at Xinchangbao (now Ugregorsk), where they stayed for a day and collected more than 8 furs.

On August 16, the fleet passed Jing'anbao (now Holmsk Port) and collected more than 8 more furs.

On August 17, the ship stopped at Beiningbao (now Nevelsk) for minor repairs, making final preparations for its upcoming passage through the Soya Strait and return to the main island of Hokyo.

This settlement, built six years ago (1633), has a population of over 320, making it a large town on the sparsely populated Sakhalin Island.

Years ago, when the first group of more than thirty pioneers cut down the first birch tree here, this place was just a sheltered bay where the Fiyaka people occasionally stopped.

Now, wisps of smoke have merged into one, standing out prominently against the gray-blue sea and sky.

However, if you look closely, you'll find that most of the buildings in the town are quite new, and some of the wooden houses even have a fresh pine scent.

Last May, a terrible earthquake struck the town, nearly destroying the entire town and killing more than 20 people and injuring more than 70.

Half a month later, upon hearing the news, the Beiying Colonization Area immediately dispatched more than ten ships of various sizes to provide assistance.

Food, tents, medicinal herbs, and a dozen or so medical personnel arrived in Beining one after another.

After months of cleanup and reconstruction, by the time the first winter snow fell, all the surviving residents had moved into the newly built wooden houses.

Furthermore, to prevent serious casualties from another earthquake, under the guidance of several construction craftsmen, all newly built houses in Bac Ninh adopted the floating column base technique and reserved some leeway in the mortise and tenon joints to ensure that they were neither too tight nor too loose.

The roofs were designed to reduce weight, with tiles laid with a 70% overlay and 30% exposed. For government offices and administrative buildings, upturned eaves were often used to minimize the weight of the eaves.

Today, the rebuilt Beining Town has a network of streets and alleys, and although there are only three or five streets, they are planned very neatly.

Hanging at the city gate is a wooden plaque that remained completely undamaged during the earthquake—the two characters “Beining” are written in a vigorous and powerful style, seemingly symbolizing the indomitable spirit of the town’s residents.

Warehouses and workshops are located on the east side of the town, while residential areas are on the west side. Xinhua's flagpole stands in the central square, and the red flag with gold stars flutters in the salty sea breeze.

At the dock, a dozen or so Fiyak laborers were carrying bundles of furs onto the "Yuanwang-4" ship.

Their dark faces were tattooed with tribal totems, and sharp short blades were inserted into fish-skin sheaths at their waists—treasures they had obtained from the Han people in exchange for furs, which they could never part with.

Not far away, a craftsman at a ship repair shop was directing two teenage indigenous boys to carry asphalt for repairing a ship in willow baskets. The boys laughed and smeared the sticky black asphalt on their companion's face, which drew a scolding from the craftsman.

"It seems there's an extra whale oil workshop compared to last year." First Mate Li Jing'er looked at a newly erected wooden shed on the south side of the dock. Under the shed, several iron pots were boiling grayish-white whale blubber, and the foul-smelling steam spread for hundreds of meters.

“Whales often swim to and fro in the waters near Beining. This spring, we caught a stranded sperm whale on the shore and even pulled out more than ten kilograms of ambergris from its belly, which made quite a bit of money,” a settlement clerk said with a smile. “The town mayor felt that these big guys shouldn’t just swim past our Beining port for nothing, so he got two whaling boats and went out to sea to hunt whales in late spring and early summer.”

"Nowadays, even the candle factories on Beiying Island specifically request our whale oil, which can be considered as the development of a new and profitable small industry after fish products and fur."

“Not bad, not bad.” Li Jing’er nodded in approval. “According to what the higher-ups say, as long as a region has industrial development, it will definitely live a good life. What’s that saying again? …No industry, no wealth. Yes, that’s the truth.”

"A whale oil workshop like this needs at least a dozen people to work. Each worker can earn at least two silver dollars a month, which adds up to more than twenty dollars a year. Tsk tsk, that's much more than making a living by digging in the soil!"

“That being said, Beining still has too few people, and it’s also a bit far from the main base on Beiying Island.” The clerk shook his head and sighed, “With these conditions, we are inherently disadvantaged if we want to build factories and workshops and develop industry and commerce.”

"Hehe... take it slow. Back then, Beiying Island started with just a few hundred people and gradually developed into a prosperous place with a population of 100,000. I heard that our Liaohai colony took advantage of the Tartars' rampage in the north and gathered 30,000 to 40,000 people, filling up several immigration transit points. Under such circumstances, Beining must have received at least a hundred people this year, right?"

"Don't even mention it. So far, the island of Beiying has only sent us a little over twenty Koreans. As for Ming Dynasty immigrants, not a single one has come!"

"how so?"

There is no boat.

"How could there be no ships?" Li Jing'er said in surprise. "Not to mention that every year, thirty or forty special immigrant ships come from Xinzhou, the Liaohai Colonization Area and our Beiying Colonization Area each have more than a dozen transport ships. With so many ships, we can transport 10,000 people to Beiying Island at once. Then, it will be even easier to transfer some of the immigrants from Beiying Island. Small boats of a few dozen tons can run it."

"The problem is that there aren't enough large ships in the Liaohai colony area to transport all the Ming Dynasty immigrants to Beiying Island, so most of them are still stranded on a few islands in Liaohai," the clerk said with a wry smile.

"What's going on?" "The higher-ups have sent more than a dozen armed immigrant ships to Luzon!"

"Luzon?" Li Jing'er was even more surprised upon hearing this. "What happened in Luzon again?... Wait, what does Luzon have to do with Xinhua?"

"In April, the Western barbarians of Luzon launched a massacre against the local Han Chinese (the massacre occurred seven months earlier than in the original timeline). It is said that near Manila, which was occupied by the Western barbarians, more than 10,000 Han Chinese were almost completely slaughtered, and the entire bay was covered with corpses and blood. Except for a few hundred people who were quick to react and took advantage of the chaos to escape back to the Ming Dynasty by boat, the rest all hid in the inland mountains and forests."

"Damn it!" Li Jing'er stood there for a long time, then cursed, "How can the Western barbarians be so hateful, wantonly slaughtering the people of my Great Ming? Damn their ancestors! We Han people were slaughtered by the Tartars in the north of the Great Ming, and when we fled to Luzon, we were slaughtered by the Western barbarians again! ... This damned God, is there no way for the people to survive?"

"Why is there no way to survive?" The clerk pointed to the rows of houses and streets in the town and said proudly, "Our Xinhua is the place where refugees all over the world can survive and live in peace."

“Of course!” Li Jing’er said with a touch of melancholy, “The greatest fortune of my life is that I came to Beiying Island and became a citizen under the rule of Xinhua, instead of the sea people despised by everyone in the Ming Dynasty. Hey, you just said that the higher-ups sent more than a dozen armed immigrant ships to Luzon, could it be…”

“That’s right!” the clerk said solemnly, “In June, our Xinhua dispatched a large number of armed ships to forcefully intervene in the Luzon affairs, preparing to rescue those Han people whose lives were hanging by a thread!”

"Can we save them? The Western barbarians have occupied Luzon for decades, so they must have deep roots. This expedition across the sea might not be easy for us, would it?"

"I don't know yet, there's no news. However, I've heard that the Westerners on Luzon don't have many soldiers or warships. If Xinhua sends a dozen or so armed ships, we shouldn't suffer a big loss."

"Oh..." Li Jing'er breathed a sigh of relief, but then she thought of something else, "The Western barbarians wantonly slaughtered our Han people, and our Xinhua sent ships to rescue them, but the Ming Dynasty didn't make any response?"

"Hmph, the Ming Dynasty court?" The clerk sneered. "When has the Ming Dynasty court ever cared about Han Chinese living overseas? Decades ago, the Western barbarians committed atrocities against Han Chinese, and did the Ming Dynasty court ever take any action to protect them?"

“…” Li Jing’er remained silent.

At that moment, a shout came from the dock, and two small fishing boats entered the harbor. The dockworkers carried buckets of fish off the dock, their bare feet leaving a trail of dark footprints on the wet wooden pier.
-
On August 20, the Yuanwang fleet departed Beining and headed south.

The waves surged and rolled, occasionally crashing onto the bow deck before quickly receding, leaving behind a trail of water.

Less than half a day after the ship set sail, a pod of migrating whales appeared a few hundred meters to the starboard side of the fleet, spewing forth towering columns of water that amazed the crew.

During this season, whale pods should be heading towards Beiying Island, but instead they turn north. This is most likely because they have been attacked by the Xinhua whaling fleet and have no choice but to flee against the current to escape human pursuit.

The following day at noon, the fleet arrived at Ixingbao (now Wakkanai City), the northernmost settlement on Beiying Island, where a towering lighthouse clearly marked its presence.

This settlement had a small population of just over 120 people. Backed by mountains and facing the sea, dozens of semi-subterranean longhouses were neatly arranged on the hillside, like seashell pits carved out by the waves.

The roof is covered with a mixture of seaweed and reindeer hide for insulation, and the chimney opening is angled southeast to avoid wind and snow.

The wooden fence surrounding the fortress was covered with sharp whale bones, which looked quite intimidating and enough to stop wild wolf packs from entering (at this time, the Hokkaido wolf had not yet become extinct).

The local residents mainly make a living by fishing and reindeer raising. The dozens of acres of land reclaimed around the area are not planted with grain crops such as corn, but are instead sparsely planted with vegetables and potatoes to provide supplies for passing ships.

Inside the fence in the northwest corner of the fortified village, more than eighty reindeer were chewing on the fresh grass and tender leaves fed to them by the herdsmen.

These livestock from Sakhalin Island have adapted to the local climate, and each deer has its antlers branded with the word "Yixing".

"The breeding deer we acquired in the spring, in exchange for ten iron axes," the keeper said, pointing to the exceptionally tall lead deer in the herd, "has now given birth to twenty-six calves."

In addition to harvesting deer antlers, the herdsmen also follow the techniques of the Yi people to make cheese from deer milk, which is then piled in cellars and covered with a pale yellow fat film.

According to the account books, last year 400 catties of deer cheese were transported to major cities such as Linhai (now Kushiro City), Jianchang (now Otaru City), and Yongtai (now Sapporo), in exchange for a considerable amount of silver dollars.

The following morning, the fleet loaded its valuable cargo from Ichenburg: fifty fox pelts, three barrels of reindeer cheese, and fifty barrels of smoked dried fish.

"Tell the adults in the settlement area," Zhao Tiegu, the head of Yixingbao Village, handed Zhang Yaoshen a list of goods and letters. "We need barbed wire to protect against wolves, cold-resistant wheat seeds, and also..."

He glanced at the Ainu girl mending the fishing net: "...woman."
-
(End of this chapter)