Chapter 2356
Wang Tom's interest in exploring unknown things soon shifted from the sea to the Ainu people. He was very interested in the "original" lifestyle of the Ainu people, so he asked Amakusa Shiro to act as an interpreter and learn more about the two uncles and nephews. About the living conditions of the Ainu tribe.
There are different opinions even in later generations about when and where these aborigines living in Hokkaido, the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin and Kamchatka moved into this area, and there is no definite conclusion. However, the lifestyle of the Ainu is obviously more primitive than that of the East Asians of the same era. They have not yet entered a farming society at this time. They are even more backward than the Li and Miao ethnic groups on Hainan Island. Most of them are similar to the indigenous tribes on the island of Taiwan.
The Ainu have their own independent language, which is significantly different from Japanese. Wang Tom has read relevant information before. It is said that the Ainu language is very similar to the language used by Eskimos and Indians. However, the folk tales and narrative poems mentioned by the uncle and nephew are still obscure and difficult to understand after being translated by Amakusa Shiro. It is difficult to use these clues to infer where their ancestors came from.
Tom Wang believes that one of the reasons why the Ainu people have not been able to develop farming technology is because the ethnic group has lived in the bitter cold areas of high latitudes all year round and is far away from the advanced civilizations of the same era. Therefore, they have not cultivated food adapted to their living environment. Crops can only stay in the stage of primitive society that relied on fishing and hunting for a living.
The backward productivity made it impossible for the Ainu to build a city-sized settlement in this area, let alone establish a country. Therefore, the Ainu people are still scattered in various places in the form of tribes, and there is no unified social system at all. Naturally, this loose social form cannot compete with Japan, which has entered feudal society for a long time. The emergence of Matsumae Clan is just the beginning. In the next few hundred years, the area that originally belonged to the Ainu people will be invaded by external forces. Eat away bit by bit, and eventually this race will slowly decline and die out.
This historical trend is unlikely to change due to Kaihan's intervention, unless Kaihan can provide agricultural assistance to the Ainu and help them build the coastal plain in eastern Hokkaido into a large granary.
Of course Haihan would not do such a thankless task. After all, the Ainu people have little contact with the outside world and their cultural level is almost zero. It would be extremely difficult to train them into a labor force that has mastered certain agricultural production techniques. , it may take several generations to achieve significant results, and that is obviously not a prospect that the Executive Committee is willing to accept.
After the fleet left Matsumae Castle, it continued northward along the west coast of Hokkaido. The two uncles and nephews got the benefit, but they were quite conscientious. No matter whether the weather was bad or not, they always took turns on duty on the deck of the flagship to ensure that they could provide the fleet with the information needed for navigation at any time.
However, the information they provide is not like sailors who can clearly grasp their position and direction. Instead, they can only judge their location based on the topography they see near the shore. They would also take the initiative to point out to Amakusa Shiro where an Ainu village existed on the nearby coast, to prove that their navigation work was valuable.
But according to the situation they described, these Ainu villages near the sea are not very large, with only a few hundred people at most. This obviously does not have the value of allowing the fleet to dock and make a special visit.
Two days later, the fleet arrived at the Shakotan Peninsula. The coast here is very steep, and many cliffs are more than 100 meters high. The scenery seen from the ship is quite magnificent. Many sailors who were resting in the cabin also came to the deck to enjoy the beautiful scenery together after hearing the news that there was scenery to see.
For the sailors who participated in this operation, this was probably the easiest voyage mission in their military careers, at least so far. There is no need to travel at full speed, there is no combat mission, and when encountering a place with beautiful scenery on the way, Wang Tom will take the initiative to slow down the fleet, and even stop to go ashore to enjoy it. It was more like a vacation trip than an expedition.
After bypassing this peninsula, there is Ishikari Bay, which spans more than a hundred miles. The largest coastal plain on the west coast of Hokkaido is located here. This place was also very famous in the era before Wang Tom traveled through it. It was Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido.
The name Sapporo also comes from the Ainu language, meaning "big river valley". However, Sapporo in later generations only began to plan to build a city in this place after Japan ruled Hokkaido in the second half of the 19th century. There are no cities located here in this era.
According to the uncle and nephew, there are several large tribes in this plain, and the total population should be several thousand. But even though there are large areas of river valleys and plains with superior natural conditions, the aborigines have not yet entered the agricultural era. It is completely unlike Sapporo in later generations, where every piece of land available for cultivation on the plains was turned into farmland.
Although there are many Ainu tribes here, Wang Tom does not want to waste time here. At most, these natives can bring some local specialties and barter for some Haihan products, but they are unlikely to have more meaningful exchanges with Haihan like the Matsumae clan did, and they will not have any idea about the subsequent itinerary. Brings great help. So Wang Tom ordered not to stay here, but directly crossed Ishikari Bay and continued north.
At the end of January 1639, the fleet arrived at Soya Bay on the northern coast of Hokkaido, which was also the hometown of the Ainu uncle and nephew. According to them, one or two merchant ships from the Matsumae Domain come here every year to trade with their tribe.
The reason why the Matsumae clan went to such great lengths to trade here was of course because the supply of souvenirs here was relatively large. Even in Wang Tom's previous deals with Matsumae Domain, many things actually came from this place. The uncle and nephew were not bragging when they claimed that they could supply Haihan with better conditions.
However, in addition to the fruits of their labor, some of these souvenirs actually come from Sakhalin Island further north. The Ainu tribe there is more closed and lacks opportunities for trade activities with the outside world, so they will cross the strait and come to this place to conduct some transactions with the local tribes. The local tribe then traded some of the items to the Matsumae Domain, which was equivalent to getting a price difference in the middle.
After hearing these "insider stories" from Amakusa Shiro, Wang Tom also felt that these Ainu people actually had no good intentions. Although this kind of buying and selling could be regarded as rudimentary business behavior, they themselves did not realize this and did not think about it. He wanted to use this method to amass wealth, and when faced with the inquiries from the Haihan people, he told the whole story without concealment.
"Arrange a boat to take them ashore, and also see what they need to trade, and give them some." Wang Tom was not interested in going ashore to deal with these Ainu people, so he handed the matter over to Amakusa Shiro.
Wang Tom now has to focus on more important things. He has to decide the next direction of travel, whether to cross the Soya Strait and continue north to Sakhalin Island, or to cross the Strait eastward into the Sea of Okhotsk and along the Thousand Islands The archipelago proceeds northeastward to explore the route to the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Bering Sea.
If he wanted to head towards the Kamchatka Peninsula, then Tom Wang would naturally set his sights on the Bering Sea to the east of the peninsula. The Aleutian Islands on the south side of the Bering Sea are distributed like a necklace of pearls between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Alaska Peninsula. The other end of the necklace is the North American continent. However, in this era, there is no official name for these areas. The Bering Sea and Bering Strait, which are familiar place names for later generations, all come from the Danish explorer Vitus Bering, and this man has been in the world for more than 40 years. He would be born later, and it would still be a hundred years before he discovered the route from Kamchatka Peninsula to Alaska.
Of course, these records have no special significance to ordinary people, and few people would consider what strategic value this desolate and cold place would have.
But Tom Wang is not an ordinary person. He is a senior general who holds great power. The intelligence and resources he possesses far exceed those of most people of his generation, which means that he can do many things that ordinary people cannot achieve. ——For example, dispatch an armed fleet to travel thousands of miles to explore unknown waters.
One of the main reasons why Tom Wang chose to participate in the time-travel operation was that he wanted to go back to the 17th century to fulfill his dream of sailing and become a great navigator admired by later generations. But after coming to this time and space, although he spent a lot of time at sea, there was not much time that he could really use to explore new routes and unknown seas.
Wang Tom needs to command the naval fleet to conquer the north and south, and play a role in Haihan's external expansion. As for personal interests and goals, in the face of such a huge responsibility, we can only wait a little bit.
But this trip with the fleet did make up for his regrets over the years to a large extent, allowing him to finally use the power in his hands to do something special for himself.
If Tom Wang can lead the team to complete the feat of crossing the Bering Sea, then he will become a great navigator in the history books who completed the great geographical discovery. The northern route from the Asian continent to the North American continent will inevitably be named after him. , and the place names of the relevant areas will also become names with special commemorative significance such as Wang Tom Channel, Wang Tom Sea, Wang Tom Islands, etc. What an honor this will be for a person who is obsessed with sailing!
Of course, such an honor is not easy to come by. Even if Tom Wang has detailed maps of areas such as the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands, sailing into such alpine areas is still very dangerous. Bering, another pioneer in time and space, died of illness while exploring this route. Along with him, twenty-eight other sailors on his ship lost their lives during the trip.
Even if he had prepared sufficient supplies before setting off for this trip, Wang Tom would never rashly think that he was ready to explore the northern route. Therefore, the goal he considered was not to go to another continent via the northern seas, but to Bering Island, the western starting point of this voyage.
Bering Island is located about four hundred miles east of the Kamchatka Peninsula, but it is more than four thousand miles away from the Soya Strait where the fleet is currently located. This is equivalent to setting Bering Island as the end point of this trip. Then the journey is only just over halfway.
If we can find some supply points along the way to ensure a supply of fresh water, then the supplies carried by the fleet should be able to support the trip to and from Bering Island. But the problem is that it is such a far-off trip, and the connection with the home country is likely to be interrupted for a long time, and the cost will be far higher than expected. Tom Wang is not even sure whether the executive committee will support such an action.
So while he was staying at Soya Bay, he gathered the senior officers in the fleet for a meeting and solicited everyone's opinions.
"This is an opportunity to make a difference, but even in my own opinion, it is a very radical approach, full of unknown risks, and it is very likely that it will not be supported by the executive committee. So I also want to hear your opinions. What will you do? Choose a bold adventure or a more conservative itinerary. ”
Wang Tom drew two different routes on the map. One went diagonally northeast to Bering Island, which is thousands of miles away. The other went north to Sakhalin Island and then along the mainland coast. Turn back southwest.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. They thought that when they got here, their boss would start thinking about the return trip, but they didn't expect that Tom Wang would have such a bold idea and mark such a distant destination on the map.
Someone boldly asked: "General, it is already very cold where we are now. Just removing the ice and snow from the deck, sail ropes, and masts every day requires a lot of manpower. If we go thousands of miles further north, How cold will it be there? Can the general be sure whether our ships and equipment can withstand it?”
Tom Wang nodded and said: "Do you have any other questions? Everyone can speak freely without any taboos."
Someone else asked: "General, going to this far north place must be full of risks. I wonder what kind of treasures there are that make the general so concerned? In my humble opinion, even if there are mountains of gold and silver there, it is not worth it." Instead of taking risks, it’s better to go back and conquer Nasado Island and occupy the gold and silver mines on the island. Wouldn’t it be easier than venturing into unknown lands?”
Another person asked: "General, even if we successfully occupy such a far away place, how can we move a large number of people to settle there? If the local climate is extremely cold, we will not be able to grow food, and the supplies will have to be thousands of miles away. It’s really fatal to travel all this way!”
After listening for a while, Wang Tom already understood the difference between his ideas and those of his subordinates. They simply could not understand how much impact this voyage would have on the future, and naturally they could not agree with his idea of adventure.
(End of chapter)