Two weeks have passed, and the "complaint movement" launched by Zhao Xin has achieved fairly good results among the soldiers.
This is the case with many things. If there is no comparison, there will be no harm. On the one hand, the shogunate and the vassals received at least 50% of the annual tribute, which has now increased to 100%; on the other hand, Beihai Town had no annual tribute in the first five years, and will only receive 10% in the future. The refugees themselves will vote with their feet.
Zhao Xin has also considered the current staple food of the refugees.
He initially bought polished rice and white flour out of convenience. In modern times, it is better to forget about buying taro as a staple food on a large scale. Modern people do not have enough to eat by themselves.
After arriving at Bear Island, Zhao Xin carefully considered and decided to feed the appetites of these refugees with good rice and white flour. Once they get used to eating these, no one will want to go back to the island country to eat taro mixed with radish rice.
On April 14, it started to rain lightly in Beihai Town.
Zhao Xin led people aboard the Thor under the gaze of the crowd who came to see him off.
Xu Shounan hugged King Duofu and shouted to Zhao Xin with tears in his eyes: "Teacher, you have to come back soon!"
Xu Funan bowed and saluted Zhao Xin.
On the shore, Yajiro waved goodbye to his brother Yaichiro on the deck.
A Miao... A Miao didn't have time. She was taken by Director Liu to check on the previous batch of refugees. However, after she heard the whistle coming from the pier, she still clasped her hands in the direction of the pier and prayed.
The Thor's first target this time is Ezo, and then it will go to Ishinomaki Port.
Sixteen hours later, the Thor took advantage of the darkness and stopped at the sea outside Otaru Port (Otaru, from the Ainu language, means river on the beach). Since this area has not yet been developed into a port, the reef conditions in the bay are not familiar.
Zhao Xin planned to continue approaching the coast through the sonar on the ship after dawn.
Historically, Ezo Land was not within the sight of the Tokugawa shogunate for a long time. As for the Matsumae Domain in the south, its predecessor was the Uyizaki family who was active in Ezo during the Warring States Period in Japan.
In 1593, Hideyoshi went to Korea, and the fifth generation head of the Uyizaki family, Yoshihiro Uyizaki, took his soldiers and horses all the way to Nagoya Castle in Hizen to join the war. Taiko-sama's reward for Keihiro's behavior was to immediately grant the Uyizaki family the right to control the Ezo Islands. He also asked the Emperor to grant Keihiro the rank of Shima Shou among the five subordinates, and bestowed the seal of "Lord of Ezo Island" on him. Zhuang and Tongzhang.
In the third year of Keicho (1598), Keihiro Uizaki changed his surname to "Matsuzen" after joining Tokugawa Ieyasu and became the first feudal lord of Matsumae Domain. The Tokugawa shogunate granted him the "Black Seal", which once again confirmed the Matsumae Domain's control over the "Ezo Land" and its power to trade with the Ainu people. The Matsumae Domain thus completely monopolized the lucrative leather goods in the Ezo Land. Trade with seafood.
The next morning, with the help of the ship's sonar, the Thor stopped one kilometer from the shore.
as expected. More than an hour later, the observing sailor on the deck came to report that several Ainu appeared on the beach, pointing at the Thor.
After hearing this, several people in the cockpit quickly raised their binoculars to check. Four thick-haired, short Ainu people appeared in their field of vision.
"So that's what they look like." Liu Sheng murmured.
Zhao Xin has never seen real Ainu people. In later generations, there is very little information about the Ainu people. He has only seen some early black-and-white photos on the Internet.
The four Ainu in sight were all holding bows and arrows. They were wearing blue robes with various patterns, belts, and what seemed to be animal skin boots. One of them had a strange hat on his head.
It may be said that it is a hat, but it has no top; it may be said that it is a forehead cloth tied around the head, and there are many things densely wrapped around it.
Zhao Xin didn't know that the clothes he saw were actually made of birch bark.
Because there are large white birch forests growing on the Ezo land, every year in June and July, the Ainu people peel off the bark of the birch trees and store them. After boiling them with water and roasting them, the bark will become very pliable and can be bent at will. The Ainu people use these processed birch bark to make various types of clothing. After these clothes were carved and colored on the surface, it was the background color and various patterns that Zhao Xin and the others saw on the clothes.
Zhao Xin watched intently and said, "The color of their clothes looks pretty good."
In the field of vision, four Ainu people gestured with their hands to indicate the size of the Thor. Zhao Xin could tell that these people were shocked. After a while, the four people turned around and quickly left the beach.
"What should I do?" Deng Fei put down the telescope and asked.
"Wait." Zhao Xin said firmly. The reason why he was sure that these Ainu people would come was because when the early Russians landed on Kunashir Island and later came into contact with the Matsumae Domain, the Ainu people led the way.
After lunch, the sailors on the deck came to report again. It was said that four small boats were coming from the coast, with four or five people sitting in each boat.
Zhao Xin immediately ordered everyone on the Thor to be on alert, and the more than two dozen sailors on the deck also distributed knives, spears and other weapons.
As for the fifty soldiers who came with the ship, including Yaichiro, Zhao Xin was worried that the Ainu would cause unnecessary trouble if they saw it, so he ordered these people to stay in the cabin and not to go on the deck without orders. .
Speaking of which, Zhao Xin's worries were a bit unnecessary.
Because at this time, the Ezo region, including the Matsumae Domain, did not produce rice at all. Although the Matsumae clan is said to be at the ten thousand stone level in the Tokugawa clan system, it is actually not as high as the actual stone. The prosperity of the Matsumae clan mainly relied on trade with Ezo and domestic clans, which led to an increase in tax revenue and was maintained.
The Ainu people on the Ezo land actually traveled north by boat a long time ago. After passing through the four northern islands in later generations, they came into contact with the Feyaka people on Sakhalin Island and carried out trade. Therefore, they are not afraid of outsiders, and are especially interested in outsiders who can bring food and silk.
Soon, when Zhao Xin and others were ready, four small boats arrived near the Thor.
At this time, the three boats were far away. On the boat at the front, an Ainu shouted loudly in Ainu: "Is there anyone on board?"
After waiting for a while, when there was no response from the boat, the man shouted again in the island dialect and Feyaka language.
On the deck, Pingtai saw Zhao Xin nodding to him, so he walked to the side of the ship and leaned down to look down. He saw that the four people sitting on the boat were the same four he saw in the morning.
"Hello." Pingtai said hello with a smile on his face and waved his hand.
The people on the boat saw a head protruding from the deck and could speak the island dialect, so they loudly asked in the island dialect: "Where are you from?"
Pingtai replied: "We came from the northwest continent."
The Ainu asked again: "What are you doing here?"
Pingtai said: "We want to build a business warehouse here to exchange goods with your people."
"What do you have? Do you have food? Do you have any silk?"
"Yes, they are all there. You can send someone up to take a look. Don't worry, we won't hurt you."
After the four Ainu people lowered their heads to discuss for a while, one of them shouted something to the people on the other three boats. Heita couldn't understand what they were saying at all.
Then, the Ainu raised his head and shouted to Heita: "Then throw a rope down, and we can climb up. Your boat is too big." After he finished speaking, he knocked it with the oar in his hand. Hull.
"Dong dong~~" The Ainu was startled when he heard the sound. Then he knocked a few times again in disbelief, and then touched it with his hand, and was dumbfounded.
Pingtai turned to ask Zhao Xin, then turned back to the people in the boat and shouted: "You guys step back, we will lower the ladder down."
The four people on the boat didn't care to explore the hull anymore, and quickly pushed the Thor backwards with their oars. At this time, the Ainu people on the four small boats only heard a creaking sound coming from the big boat. A thin and long white ladder slowly stretched out from the boat, and then one end was pulled by several thick ropes. Slowly approaching the sea.
"You go up from this ladder and tie the boat to the railing of the ladder." Heita continued to shout.
The boat slowly rowed towards the ladder. After approaching, an Ainu stood up carefully and reached out to grab the railing.
"It's iron!" the Ainu shouted in surprise.
"Don't worry, the ladder is very strong. Tie the boat up before getting up." Heita shouted to the man.
So the Ainu picked up a thick rope made of bark from the boat, tied one end to the railing of the ladder, and the other end to the bow of the boat.
When the four people carefully stepped onto the Thor, they were immediately stunned. They had never seen such a big ship, and the hull and everything within sight seemed to be made of iron.
There are no iron mines in Ezo, and the Matsumae clan tries its best to control the outflow of knives. Therefore, except for a few tribal leaders who own a samurai sword, most Ainu people use bows and arrows, and the arrowheads are also ground from the bones of wild beasts. .
(Based on this situation, the Ainu people adopted a clumsy method of capturing large beasts like black bears when hunting. First, they tied a bark rope tightly to a tree stump and lay it down. When the black bear was lured to the tree trunk that was lying down, more than a dozen people hugged another tree trunk and worked together to press the black bear between the two trunks. When the black bear was unable to resist and exhausted, the others Then they swarmed up and quickly tied up the black bear’s hands and feet with ropes.)
Heita smiled and waved to the four Ainu people and said, "Please come over and see if you need these things."
The four of them came to their senses in a daze and looked in the direction pointed by Pingtai.
On a table on the deck, there were piled several things that Zhao Xin asked people to move. Under the sunshine, it is dazzling.
Several bolts of silk and satin of different colors, a 10 kilogram standard bag of flour, several short knives, a recurved compound bow used by Qing soldiers, two cotton armors with yellow flags and two helmets.
When the leader of the Ainu saw these things, he quickly stepped forward, reached out and picked up a short knife.
Three meters away, Zhao Xin and Deng Fei both put their hands on the pistols tied to their thighs, while Liu Sheng, standing aside, picked up the black Marlin 1894.
The four Ainu didn't pay attention to the actions of Zhao Xin and the others. The leading Ainu pulled out the short sword from the scabbard, and the bright blade reflected the sunlight on his face.
"How do you change this?" The man turned to Pingtai and asked.
"How do you want to change it?" Pingtai was still smiling.
"Fifty otter skins." The Ainu man holding the short knife said tentatively. He liked this knife so much.
"No problem. Just do as you say."
When the Ainu heard this, they immediately became happy. He inserted the knife into the scabbard, held the short knife in one hand, and touched some pieces of silk beside him with the other hand.
Then, his eyes lit up, and he reached out and picked up the bow.
This Qing army standard bow is made of elm wood, with a layer of shark skin as decoration on the handle; the front is pasted with horn, and the back is pasted with beef tendon and birch bark; the bow tip is made of mulberry wood, with horn pieces sandwiched in the middle. . The bowstring is made of raw silk.
The Ainu people picked up the unstrung bow and looked at it from left to right. They also liked it very much. After a long while, he put down the bow and touched the two cotton armors again.
Finally, he pointed to the bag of flour and asked Pingtai: "What is this?"
"Grain. Powder made from grains." Heita said as he took a plate of steamed buns from a sailor's hand and smiled at the Ainu and said, "This is food made from this kind of grain. Do you want to try it?"
(End of chapter)
