Before catching sea crabs, Yang Fan thought that he could only try his luck when he first arrived. Sea crabs are no better than river crabs. Not only are they difficult to catch in the sea, but their numbers should be relatively scarce.
But the result was far beyond his expectation. An iron cage was pulled up by the sailors with a rope, and you could see that the bottom of the cage was covered with a layer of extremely ferocious sea crabs.
The diameter of the crab shell alone was more than half a foot, and a single crab weighed no less than three or four kilograms. This situation almost stunned everyone on the boat.
Not only were there crabs inside, but some salmon and cod were also caught in some cages. When the cages were pulled out of the water, the sea crabs in the cages also planned to attack the cod...
Yang Fan selected the eight largest ones to present. Both Chong Wang Zhu Youfan and fleet commander Zheng Zhiwan also showed the same astonished expressions as before.
Zhu Youfan vaguely remembered that the prince said that this kind of king crab has no natural enemies in the animal world here, and the indigenous savages are not good at fishing. They can breed at will, and for many years, their numbers are unimaginable.
If the actual situation is consistent with what the prince said, then he and the people of Chongguo will be in for a treat, not counting the many fish in the sea and the amphibians of the sea generation.
Before Zhu Youqi went to sea, he hired several shipbuilding workers at high wages. Each worker brought a family with him, so he could not bring only one person with him. Once he was hired, he would become a family.
The family is worth two hundred taels of silver plus five stones of rice. Zhu Youfan also stated in the contract that as long as he is willing to come and settle in Kamchatka Peninsula, adults can receive fifty acres of land, the elderly and children can receive twenty acres, and five acres of land. Fully tax-free every year.
Except for Shandong, the northern seaside was actually not much richer. It was very different from Fujian controlled by the Zheng family. Many shipbuilders were very excited about the generous conditions offered by King Chong.
The main reasons are government exploitation and Tatar plunder. After the prince took over the country, he exempted taxes in various parts of the north. But who knows whether the order will be changed overnight. If the scene of Long Live Lord happens again, won't the people have no way to survive again?
Many people who were pessimistic about the imperial court were forced to leave their hometowns. Considering that there was no plague in the new overseas fiefdoms, and there was no threat from the Tatars, they followed King Zhou and King Chong to settle in the new overseas fiefdoms.
However, the ship's load was limited. In addition to the family members and servants of the feudal king and the prince, only craftsmen, that is, various craftsmen, could be approved to board the ship first and became the first batch of overseas feudal lords.
Zhu Youfan brought more than 200 servants and more than 100 craftsmen to his original fiefdom in Runing. When he went to the capital and Tianjin, he recruited more than 50 craftsmen.
Including the family members and subordinates of Zhu Youza, Prince of Huai'an County, and Zhu Youcai, Prince of Heyang County, the total number is more than four thousand.
It may be nothing compared to the huge Zhou State, but this population is enough to establish the Ming Dynasty on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The advantage of a small population is also obvious, that is, it is easier to manage and ration materials.
According to the minimum rationing standard, Chongguo, with a population of less than 5,000, only needs 5,000 kilograms of meat per day to survive.
Considering the rich fishery resources in the coastal areas here, it is not too difficult to meet this minimum standard without farming.
But if you want to fish, you need a fishing boat. When Zhu Youzhen was on the road, he bought two birds and four sand boats from Zheng Zhiwan.
The number is indeed small, but it can be said that it is better than nothing. Small fishing boats can be built quickly by letting the boatmen cut down the trees after the people arrive in the new territory.
Kamchatka Peninsula is all virgin forest, which can be cut down at will. The wood used to build luxurious palace wooden houses is naturally the most valuable wood in the North - fir.
After planning to "invite" the two princes around him to build the country fifty miles away, Zhu Youfan chose a piece of land near the landing site for his Chongguo capital, Gao Shangcheng, and let his men start construction.
At present, the length and width of the Sublime City are only two miles, and it is still the type where flags are planted as a wall. The city wall does not even have a foundation. Once the nearby birch trees are cut down and inserted into the soil, it will become a city wall.
The first phase of the palace only had a wooden house, which was a bit shabby, but it was still much better than living in a tent all the time. When the cold wind was biting, any fool knew that he should get into the wooden house to keep warm.
In order to avoid a fight for land, Zhu Youfan announced in public that only with his permission and sending someone to measure on the spot can Chongguo's land be released for farming.
This saves a group of guys with green eyes from running outside the wooden wall to enclose the land and treating everything outside the city as their own farm.
There is definitely no such good thing here. The nearest farmland to the capital is five miles away.
Before more than half of the food is consumed, the capital must be built almost as much as possible, and at the same time, time must be seized to catch fish.
This year we won't be able to catch up with planting, so we can just burn the wasteland and plow it, and it won't be until next spring at the earliest.
While Zheng Zhiwan's fleet was still waiting to load sulfur, Zhu Youqi hurriedly sent a large number of people to board the ships after the negotiations were completed, and went out to sea to catch seafood. This was considered an integration of farming and harvesting.
No matter what you fish out of the sea, as long as it is not mud or stones, you can eat it.
If you can't eat it, you can dry it and store it for winter.
Especially when the weather is good, large-scale seafood fishing can significantly reduce food consumption.
Zheng Zhiwan's fleet has reached hundreds of ships, and each ship is equipped with fishing nets. It is easy to do this kind of job.
"Report~! Report to the prince, there will be a great harvest in the sea!"
"Oh? How's the situation?"
"Prince Qi, we are still making statistics. According to visual inspection by my subordinates, the weight of each boat caught at sea is no less than several hundred kilograms!"
"Good! Very good! Let me go and have a look!"
Zhu Youqi was not like his clan brother who kept saying that he cared about Wan Min and then made Wan Min homeless.
Although he thinks that his talent is not high and his knowledge is still shallow, Zhu Youfan also knows the basic principle that he should not easily attribute it to Min.
Without collecting taxes or farming, the simplest way to keep people fed was to fish from the sea.
As long as the people do not suffer from hunger, the foundation of Yao's Chongguo will not be disturbed, and he, the Chongguo king, will be able to stay in power for a long time.
This is also thanks to a certain clan brother who provided negative teaching materials for a long time, so that Zhu Youfan could learn from it...
"Your Majesty, a thousand years old! A thousand years old! A thousand years old!"
"It doesn't have to be like this, I'm free of charge!"
Even though he had been aloof before, Zhu Youfan also knew that he had just assumed a vassal status and had to show a pro-min attitude, so that he could easily unite the people and fight against the severe cold that would last for several months.
According to the Prince's instructions to "hunt without end", which means circular fishing, all fish smaller than half a foot must be released, because the large fish over half a foot in the sea here are enough for all types of boats to return home with full loads.
When Zhu Youqi felt the shore, the sailors and the laborers on board were unloading the fruitful harvest of sea fishing onto the shore one after another.
Each wooden barrel has reached its peak and is filled to the brim. From a distance, you can see with the naked eye that some fish are still flapping in it.
There are at least thirty wooden barrels on a boat, each barrel holds twenty fish, each weighing two kilograms. Each boat returns home with a harvest of thousands of kilograms.
If a hundred ships can achieve such a harvest, the total catch of the fleet can reach 100,000 jins, and maybe 150,000 to 60,000 jins, enough to feed the entire Chongguo Zimin. It's been ten days.
When it comes to fishing, you need to pay attention to methods and understand the most basic fishing techniques. Secondly, you need to understand the distribution of fishing grounds. If you go to a place where there are no fish, you can only catch shrimps. Third, you have to try your luck. When luck comes, you can't stop it.
Now that the fleet has all three, it is logical to achieve a great harvest. Even Zheng Zhiwan, who did not go to sea with the fleet, was amazed when he saw it. In the local waters of Fujian, this kind of result is also rare.
"Weigh and calculate first. I want to know the total amount of sea catch quickly!"
Every participant was filled with happy smiles, and Zhu Youqi, who did not participate in this sea fishing activity, was no exception. He was more excited. When he saw buckets of big fish, he could not restrain his excitement.
As expected, the prince did not lie to him. Now that he saw the fleet returning with a full load, Zhu Youfan felt more at ease. In the long run, everyone in Chongguo would no longer have to worry about being trapped by hunger.
The people watched on the shore and saw that they could also have big fish to eat. Naturally, they were also very happy and began to pray to God for blessing...
Many people thought that King Chong was deliberately deceiving them. There were no children here, and even the houses had to be rebuilt. In addition, the weather was much colder than the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. Many people planned to board the ship secretly and return to the Ming Dynasty.
When they saw the fleet starting to unload seafood, those who had backed out began to hesitate. It seemed good to be able to eat seafood every day in Chongguo, but at least they couldn't enjoy this treatment in Daming itself.
"Your Majesty, this time we go to sea, the fleet will catch all kinds of fish weighing more than 173,500 kilograms, various crabs weighing more than 9,400 kilograms, and various shrimps weighing more than 6,700 kilograms. , other seafood is about 10,200 jins, and the total is about 199,800 jins."
"Okay! Excellent! Send me the king's order to distribute the silver according to the catch of each ship. No deductions are allowed. Anyone who violates the order will be severely punished!"
Zhu Youfan was so happy to be able to catch nearly 200,000 kilograms of seafood in one trip to the sea. This amount was completely beyond his expectations.
It doesn’t take much, as long as you can harvest 50,000 kilograms at a time and persist for about thirty days, you should have enough meat for the people of Chongguo to survive the winter.
This does not include sea lions, walruses, seals and other animals in coastal areas. There is still no time to find out the habitats of these prey.
For the people of Chongguo who are short of oil and water in their stomachs, they are very good tooth sacrifices. Once you encounter them, you cannot let them go.
Zhu Youza, Prince of Huai'an County, and Zhu Youcai, Prince of Heyang County, were naturally very pleased to see this scene.
According to the agreement between their three brothers, after excluding the meat that each commoner received, Zhu Youfan would account for 50%, and Zhu Youza and Zhu Youcai would each account for 25%.
In Kamchatka, meat is food. It is no exaggeration to say that this item is equivalent to silver. Here, silver cannot be used as food, but meat can be easily exchanged for silver.
Zhu Youfan, who considers himself a wise king, wants everyone in every family to eat seafood and have meat to eat every day. Based on this alone, he feels much better than a certain brother in the clan.
And we are definitely not just talking about it. After the statistics, seafood rationing began nationwide. Adults, both male and female, can get four kilograms of fish, and the elderly and children can receive two kilograms. This is two days' worth.
How much does four pounds of fish weigh?
In Daming itself, that would have been a pretty big carp.
The climate in Kamchatka is also very suitable for storing food, so there is no need to worry about rapid spoilage.
However, after finally getting such a big harvest, Zhu Youyi was still not reassured and immediately ordered people to clean and pickle the remaining seafood.
In the Ming Dynasty, money and food were the foundation of the country.
In Kamchatka, meat and food are the foundation of the country.
These "national foundations" are where you live and work, so you must not be careless!
Although it is funny, it is actually the case.
That's thousands of mouths. If you can't feed them, the consequences will have already appeared on the mainland.
However, with the help of the surrounding rich fishing grounds, Zhu Youqi was able to solve the problem very well.
This trip to sea has also proved that fishing at sea is indeed much faster than harvesting from farming, and the two must not be compared together.
Zheng Zhiwan was just watching with amusement. The purpose of agreeing to lend the fleet to Chong Wang Zhu Youfan was to help the vassal king accumulate some meat as soon as possible.
With sufficient meat, Zhu Youfan could let his people climb to the volcano to collect sulfur, otherwise he would have to return empty with his fleet.
The imperial court did not allocate corresponding expenses to the transportation vassal Guo Zimin. The prince said that the cost of purchasing sulfur could be used to offset it, which was equivalent to making Zheng Zhiwan a second-rate dealer.
However, Zheng is originally engaged in this kind of business, and has no worries about face. As long as it can make money, even bird droppings can be considered for transportation...
On the way north, Zheng Zhiwan, who was enjoying the imperial requisition, requisitioned all the ships on the southern coast of Kimchi Country without giving him a single tael of silver.
When he arrived in the northern part of Japan, he used a large amount of copper coins to buy a bunch of ships. After arriving in the north, the size of the fleet had expanded to more than 700 ships.
Although they vary in size, and dozens of ships were lost on the road, the remaining more than 700 ships are used to transport sulfur, and the total amount is really unimaginable.
It is obvious why the prince wanted so much sulfur, because his eldest brother Zheng Zhilong had already mentioned it when he returned from the capital. The prince also asked Zheng to purchase saltpeter on a large scale from overseas.
Based on the calculation that each ship carries one thousand kilograms of sulfur, five hundred ships can transport back half a million kilograms of sulfur. This is still at least. As long as there is sufficient sulfur here, it is very possible to double the amount.
The price the prince offered Zheng Zhiwan was fifty copper coins per catty, which didn't look high, but this was raw sulfur, not processed, and not even a semi-finished product.
If one million kilograms of sulfur could be transported back to Tianjin, it would be worth fifty thousand taels of silver. Excluding the purchase price of ten copper coins per kilogram, Zheng Zhiwan could still make a net profit of forty thousand taels of silver.
This is the first time to travel back and forth between the mainland and the Northland. I can only use sulfur to pay for the freight. When I come back next year, each vassal country will have accumulated a large amount of furs and antlers. By then, Zheng Zhiwan will be able to do other businesses Make a fortune.
This can only be regarded as the traveling expenses given by the prince to Zheng Zhiwan himself, and cannot be regarded as a real benefit. The bulk of the reward is the gold mine on Qiongzhou Island given to Zheng, the snowflakes with the Japanese country, and the special medicine business. .
