The North Sea (Sea of Okhotsk) is known as the ice cellar of the Pacific Ocean. It begins to freeze in October, and the sea surface freezes for up to seven months.
The cold wind is fierce.
Prime Minister Wang Chao stood on the deck of the Pioneer, clutching the cable with his hand, refusing the captain's persuasion to enter the cabin.
"How far is it?"
"Coming!"
This was the first time the fleet sailed in the North Sea north of the Heilongjiang estuary. They were not familiar with the hydrology of the waterway and did not dare to sail too close to the shore for fear of hitting a reef or hitting the bottom.
The wind was high and the waves were strong, the sea breeze was wet, cold, and foggy.
The Prime Minister was secretly worried. They stayed in Nurqian Yongning City for a few more days. They were delayed in meeting the leaders of various tribes. They even met envoys from several tribes asking for help. Some Rakshasa invaded the tribes on the north bank of the Heilongjiang Estuary.
Chijinhara of the Qiler tribe lives on the Hengu River (Xinggun River and Amugong River merge into Heilongjiang near Nuergan). Chijinhara lives on the banks of the Duga River, a tributary of the upper reaches of the Hengu River.
The Rakshasa people invaded from the north, raided their gates, plundered their furs, robbed their wives and daughters, kidnapped Harada, and forced them to pay a physical tax on mink skins.
Chijinhara is one of the twelve surnames of Qiler. The Qiler part is distributed in the Hengu River Basin. The Feyaka people at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River call them Legu, Ewenki, and Manhun people, and the Oroqen people call them Nejidar.
They belong to a branch of the Oroqen branch. They are organized by surname blood lineage. Each surname is a hala, forming twelve hala. There are not many people in each hala. They are based on family units, and one or several families gather together.
Together, we are one Gashan.
It is said that the Tatars previously recruited the Qiler tribe, compiled their households, and required them to pay a mink per household. They also assigned surname chiefs and township chiefs to each of them according to Hara and Garzha, and divided them into household jurisdictions. According to statistics, there are twelve surnames and four.
There were five hundred households living in forty-eight villages, and the Manchus divided them into the children of tribute servants and the rest of the white people.
Qijinhara has one surname chief, four township chiefs, five children, fifty-five white people, sixty-five households, about 260 people, mainly engaged in hunting, and they live in eight Gashans.
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Each house has only a few households or more than a dozen people.
When the Rakshasa invaded, these Chiler people who made a living by hunting and fishing were no match. Some were forced to pay taxes in kind, some were forced to surrender, and some fled along the river in panic, seeking help from the south.
The dynasty ministers and others have been to Nurgan three times this year. They have contacted Feyaka and Qiler tribes here, granted officials and rewards, and conducted trade.
Because the Shaotian court does not levy physical taxes for the time being, and the things brought to the mutual market are of high quality and low price, all ministries welcome Ming's return. Even the registered residences reported to the Qing court are more than those reported to the Qing court, except for a few who are still unwilling to contact
, the twelve surnames contacted reported more than 1,000 households.
According to the information collected by the Prime Minister from the local people, the Chiler people actually have eighteen surnames, and they have a total of about 3,000 households.
Originally, the Prime Minister planned to rest in Yongning City and immediately go to Okhotsk, but because of the Qiler people's request for help, he decided to enter the Hengu River first to destroy the Rakshasa devils who were heading south.
When the leader of Qilergehara heard that the Ming Dynasty was willing to send troops to help drive away the invading Rakshasa devils, he immediately led the way. This troop dispatch went smoothly.
They drove a clipper directly into the Hengu River, and when they reached the upstream tributary, they switched to a sailboat. Under the leadership of the Qijintou people, they arrived at Dugarjin Gashan in the dark, where they were attacked by a group of Rakshasa ghosts.
Occupy it and use it as their base to plunder the surrounding villages of Chiler. They even gave it a Rakshasa name, Duki.
Wang Chaoxiang and others took a small boat to the riverside, quietly landed on the shore, and then surrounded Dugasjingashan. Many pioneer marines who were veterans of the imperial camp quickly climbed over the village fence and got in.
, before the Rakshasa devils could react, they entered several tents and killed several people in a row.
The invading Japanese soldiers hugged the Chiler women and fell asleep soundly after venting their anger. Unexpectedly, the Japanese soldiers on duty outside were quietly dispatched by the old imperial soldiers.
When one of the Japanese soldiers was alarmed and rolled around while sounding the alarm, the Prime Minister of the Dynasty had already rushed into the village with his battalion carrying a flintlock gun.
Gunshots sounded.
The fire was bright.
The battle soon ended, and a final count revealed that there were not many Cossack bandits. They were an 18-member expedition team that came from Okhotsk Fort along the coastline. They were ordered to go to Nurgan to reconnoiter the situation. They came from Fei
The Yaqa people heard that the emperor's army had arrived at the mouth of the river and was very powerful.
These people walked down the coast, grabbing as they went.
Their muskets and scimitars were enough to deal with the dozens of families of Chiler people, but when they encountered the pioneering fleet of the Prime Minister, they were caught off guard.
Thirteen people were killed directly, leaving five alive.
The Prime Minister directly ordered the five living men to have their hands, feet, and thumbs chopped off, and then had them castrated. The doctors of the fleet were very capable and did their work quickly and well. Although the five people were extremely weak, they were still alive.
Will not die.
After the interrogation revealed that only eighteen people were present, the Prime Minister returned the army smoothly.
The chiefs of all surnames and townships in Qiler admired the Ming army very much. They found their wives and daughters, and even took back their robbed furs, reindeer, dogs, and dried fish and meat.
As a token of gratitude, half of what he got back was given to the Ming army.
The Prime Minister of the Dynasty symbolically collected a few pieces of skins from each of the eighteen surnames and a total of seventy-two villages. Each village received a piece of skin, a bag of dried fish, and some deer bark.
When leaving, everyone heard that they were going to fight against the Rakshasa rebels in Okhotsk, so they all applied to sign up. The Prime Minister was originally unwilling to take them, but it was best to consider their hatred of the Rakshasa rebels, so he agreed to send a village.
A disciple followed, which also allowed them to see the world. The surnamed elder and village chiefs also followed, and there were about a hundred people gathered at the same time.
After winning the battle, we collected our troops and headed back to Yongning City along the river. The journey back and forth took a lot longer than originally planned. At this time, the weather was already cold, and the temperature of the North Sea was dropping sharply, and it was about to freeze.
Some people advised the Prime Minister to simply wait until next year to conquer Okhotsk, but the Prime Minister knew very well that once the ice solidified, the North Sea would be frozen for at least half a year, and he couldn't wait any longer.
Moreover, judging from the intelligence obtained during the interrogation, the pioneering fleet has visited Yongning three times this year, and the Rakshasa devils in Okhotsk have also known about it. They have not only strengthened their defenses, but also sent people to Yakutsk to ask for help and ask them for help.
They mobilized troops and artillery, and at the same time recruited strong men from surrounding tribes that had surrendered to them to assist in city defense, and sent people south to investigate.
If we don't make an all-out effort to take out the Okhotsk Fort now, then next year or six months later, we will probably have stronger troops and equipment by then.
"Capture the Okhotsk Fort, we will spend the winter there, and next year we will follow the path of the Rakshasa Japs, and we will march to Yakutsk and capture him!"
The Prime Minister of the Dynasty attacked with a firm attitude. Just in case, he also made complete preparations. Not only did Hezhe, Feyaka, Oroqen, Ewenki, Daur, Qiler and other ministries take the initiative to select 800 people from the troops,
He joined the expedition and purchased a large amount of supplies, tents, food, dried fish, dried meat, etc. in Yongning City, plus a lot of furs.
Everything was ready, and almost all the pioneer fleet was dispatched.
Sail into the North Sea and march towards Okhotsk Fort. After taking the castle, most of them will directly camp there for the winter. Some tribes will join the army and they can return by land.
The tribesmen were in awe as they sat on what they considered to be a gigantic and lightning-fast clipper boat.
They also saw whales.
Many tribes in Heilongjiang are also good at fishing. There is a big fish in Heilongjiang and other rivers, which can be one to two feet long and weighs two to three thousand kilograms. This fish is called sturgeon, and the Hezhe people call it Ke.
Rifuchen is commonly known as Shalazi, and the Jurchens are called Qili Fuchen.
It is not easy to catch such a fish weighing one or two thousand kilograms in big rivers such as the Heilongjiang River or the Wusuli River, but they saw that when the pioneering fleet was on its way, it actually caught a giant whale.
The whale hunting speedboat is released, the crew carries a whaling harpoon, chases with a net, shoots the whale with a crossbow, then kills it, and finally separates it.
In their eyes, these are like miracles.
Several whaling speedboats, with six people on each boat, paddled and shouted slogans to chase whales, and then threw harpoons. After the harpoons with long ropes hit the whales, they would even throw a second and third harpoons.
root.
The giant whale dived in pain, and the small boat was not only dragged away, but also in danger of being taken to the bottom of the sea. This would test the eyesight of the whaling warriors. If they gave up cutting the rope too early, they would lose the whale. If
If they make a mistake in judgment and fail to cut off the hadrons in time, the whale will pull them into the bottom of the sea, causing the boat to capsize and sink.
The pioneers' whaling warriors were steady and ruthless, and the whale finally surfaced. They surrounded it and used spears to kill it. They also had to prevent the whale from slapping its tail before it died. If they were accidentally hit, the ship would be broken into pieces and people would die.
When the crew on the whaling boat cheered, the tribesmen on the big boat couldn't help but cheer and praise, especially those warriors who boasted that they could kill three thousand kilograms of sturgeons in the Heilongjiang River.
Very impressed.
A whale as huge as a small boat floated on the sea. The small boats together dragged the whale to the side of the big ship and fixed it to the side of the ship with iron chains. A scaffolding made of narrow wood was lowered from the ship, and the crew used huge shovels to cut the whale.
The whale was cut up and divided, and then pieces of blubber and whale meat were hoisted onto the ship using cranes.
Those sailors cut up whales like a butcher cutting up cattle, and the blubber, baleen, teeth, and whale brain oil were used.
Nothing is wasted.
The North Sea was cold at this time, so the whale was able to survive longer.
The ship has even begun refining whale oil, which is a good thing. It can be sold at a high price when transported back to the port. Whale teeth, baleen, etc. are also treasures that can be sold at a good price.
Whale meat is also a good food.
When those sturgeon hunters saw the whaling warriors on the pioneer fleet, they fell to the ground in admiration and shouted to become their disciples.
For the Prime Minister, since his pioneering fleet mainly runs the route from Vladivostok to Yongning Port, it will occasionally return to Lushun, Fengtian, and Qingdao Ports for rest and supplies. There are rich whale resources on the route, especially since Vladivostok is located in a whale-rich area. The sea naturally requires the recruitment of some experienced whale hunting crew members. If you catch one during the voyage, you will make a lot of extra money, and a whale can also be used as food.
After catching the whale, we continued sailing. We ate whale meat every day, fried, stewed, and roasted. It tasted a bit dry, but there was nothing wrong with being able to talk about meat at sea. Besides, the North Sea was getting colder day by day. I had some whale oil by the way. It has a very good effect in keeping out the cold.
"Xiduumei, here we come!"
The lookout on the mast shouted loudly to the deck.
The ancestors of the Ewenki people, Qidumei, are said to live in the mountains and forests. They raise deer, use dogs, use Chana skis to travel to the mountains, forests and snow, and live in birch bark houses. Today they are also called the Sauron tribe.
The dynasty's general named the Okhotsk Fort, a stronghold established by the Rakshasa people on the north coast, as Qidumigang to declare China's sovereignty over this place since ancient times.
