Chapter 1032 Five Years of Long Enjoyment, Hugely Profitable Trade in the Extreme North, and a Fierce Raid on the Accounts!

The sea breeze blows for more than a thousand miles, from the bright red altar in the mountains in the south to the white ice field in the deer in the north. The cold and hoarse prayers of the old grandmother had long been dissipated in the biting wind. When the sea breeze fell, they came to a small river that had just been frozen, and when they landed on a five-masted ocean-going ship, they heard another pious and hoarse pleading.

"O god of the water field who eliminates evil! I beg you, have pity on your humble servant, and remove the bad luck of the dead on my body... Avalokitesvara in white clothes who saves suffering! Please, rescue me from this voyage of suffering. Come on!...Ah! Little Jin Shanshu kowtowed to the gods!..."

The icy sea breeze froze the earth and the North Sea, and also froze the dilapidated oceangoing boats in the small river entering the sea. Shipwright Jin Shanshu was wrapped in a blood-stained deerskin robe, knelt on the cold deck, and kowtowed several times to the two divine wooden plaques carved by himself. He muttered to himself, praying for good luck to the witch god "Shui Tianfu" in the North Korean village, and praying to the Guanyin Bodhisattva who rescued the suffering to return alive.

In this era, Buddhism in Goryeo, which was very prosperous for a while, has withdrawn from the court under the suppression of the Lee Dynasty. The monks of various sects fled into the mountains and forests, barely maintaining the inheritance of the mantle, but they let go of their once high-ranking posture and got close to the ordinary villagers. In the North Korean countryside, all kinds of witch god beliefs have continued, and have become more and more prosperous with the hardships of the people at the bottom.

As for the Korean Confucianism occupying the court at this time, only the second-class "two classes" and "middle class" gentlemen are qualified to bow their heads and worship! Whether it is "King Wenxuan" Confucius, "Marquis Wenchang" Cui Zhiyuan, or "Marquis Hongru" Xue Cong, none of them have the slightest relationship with the last second-class "ordinary people" and "Bai Ding", let alone those who are not considered human. untouchables".

"I beg you! God of the water field! Don't let the horrible man-eating savages catch up again!...Please! Guanyin Bodhisattva! Let me survive the winter and go back alive!...I don't want to die here and be killed Evil ghosts eat it!..."

Shipwright Jin Shanshu kowtowed again and again, crying with snot and tears. Then, all the snot and tears froze on his crumpled blood-stained robe, freezing into strips of ice slag.

On the north side of the Kamchatka Peninsula in November, it was already colder than when Shengshan Pavilion was the coldest! Not to mention Kim Sun-soo's former hometown Gyeongsangnam-do, and the warm Sakai Port where he has lived for a long time.

As a great shipbuilder with outstanding skills, his life after being taken captive to the He Kingdom may not be considered good, but at least it can be considered well-to-do. And it wasn't until two years ago that he was ordered by the monastery to board a ship and drift in the extremely cold North Sea... He didn't really know what it means to be worried, what it means to be unable to sleep at night, and what it means to sleep next to the Ten Temple King of Hades!

"Hey! Master Mizuta!...Last year, the voyage to the various tribes of the Eastern Sea Mountains and the Huatai Ezo was quite good... This year, when I came to the north of the North Sea, the snowfield deer I met, that is the real food. Human beings, Rakshasa demons!... Not to mention the waves that can swallow ships, and the severe cold that freezes ears off... Woohoo! Bodhisattva who saves suffering and suffering! Please save me!..."

Thinking of the sudden attack on the people not long ago, and the fellow sailor who was captured by Xueyuan Luyi, the boatman Jin Shanshu felt sad and cried even more sadly. I heard that these deer barbarians in the north will eat people alive! And once eaten by them, wouldn't it mean that he would fall into the animal realm and be unable to recover in the next life? …

Bodhisattva! The danger and difficulty of this year's voyage to the extreme north were beyond his worst imagination!

In the early spring of April this year, as soon as the ice floes melted, the Zhayang ship carried thirty crew members, sufficient food and goods, and headed north from the Katsuyama Pavilion of the Oysterzaki family. Half of them were samurai, guides, and apprentice sailors of the Oysteraki clan, and the other half were monk soldiers, shipwrights, and skilled sailors of the great merchant Kiyoshi Morino. Jin Shanshu is naturally also a member of Morino Kiyoshi, and he is the most professional technician, a shipwright who can repair ocean boats!

The Zheyang boat first went north along the Huatai Peninsula and traded with the surrounding Ezo tribes, but the harvest was very little. Then, in mid-May, the boat arrived on the opposite side of the Huatai Peninsula, and completed the deal agreed with a Shantar tribe last year, in exchange for a real Jurchen horse that could be bred!

After changing to the big white Jurchen horse, the ship's executive and captain, Murakami Jitsutsu, was overjoyed and opened two jars of rice wine, and everyone in the chartered fleet celebrated! That night, drinking rice wine, his face flushed, and he rarely called Watanabe Masumi "Kun".

"Mr. Watanabe! With this strong white-haired stallion, even if I can't exchange for any excellent fox fur or mink fur on the next voyage north, I can finally give the owner an explanation of 'lucky life'" Already!..."

"Oh! Blessed by the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman! This white-haired horse is as tall as a person at the shoulders! How about calling it 'Gao Baiyun' or 'Big White Deer Hair'?..."

The monk Watanabe Masumi's eyes were burning, looking at the Jurchen's big horse, which was as tall as a man, he wished to drool on it and mount it fiercely. It's a pity that Murakami Jitong just grinned, and handed over the Jurchen big horse to Suichiro, the head of the horse group who specializes in raising horses. Then, with a serious face, he said to Masumi Watanabe seriously.

"Mr. Watanabe, the Buddha is a witness! Samurai Yinuo, we have agreed... This Jurchen horse is dedicated to the Patriarch Xin Guanggong! As for the name and how to arrange it, it is naturally up to Xin Guanggong to decide! ..."

"Uh, alright! Samurai Yinuo!... We also agreed that we must go to the Arctic Ice Field in exchange for really excellent fox fur and mink fur, so that I can give an explanation to the monastery!"

"Well... let's continue to go north! I was also entrusted by the Patriarch to find the gold dust in the hands of the extreme northern tribe..."

At the end of May, the Zheyang boat passed the northernmost tip of the Huatai Peninsula and really entered the extremely cold North Sea. Along the coast, they searched for small nomadic tribes along the way, and carried out relatively safe barter trade.

In early June, they exchanged two female Yakut snow horses from a nomadic mountain tar Sakha. The shoulder height of this kind of snow horse is about 1.3 meters. Although it is not as good as the Jurchen horse of more than 1.5 meters, it is far better than the Kyushu horse of Heguo who is just over 1 meter.

The biggest use of exchanging these two horses, besides breeding them in the future, is to allow the warriors on the boat to travel deeper into the northern snowfields to find those nomadic extreme northern tribes! ....

After that, there was a full five months of searching and trading from June to October. The Zheyang ship stopped and went, turned from north to east, and circled the coast of the Extreme North Sea for a half-circle of three thousand miles. Most of the time, the ocean-shading boats docked at a certain river mouth on the extreme north coast, and then let the warriors of the Oysterzaki clan land, looking for the Ewen people and horses around the river.

The nomadic tribes in the Northland always herd herds from around one river to another. In fact, the routes of grazing and migration of various ministries have rules to follow. Whether you are grazing cattle, sheep or deer, the lush water and grassland along the river is always the most precious, and it is also a must-stop place!

For the Heguo Zhayang ships going north, as long as they spend some time, they can always meet the migrating Ewen people and horses around the river. However, the tribe of the Ewen people is not small, and there are too few Japanese warriors on the Zheyang boat, and the food, wine, salt and iron utensils they carry are very eye-catching. They also need to spend more time, avoiding tribes that look big at first glance, and try to only trade with small tribes with dozens of people.

In this way, searching and searching intermittently, many high-quality furs were traded on Zheyang boats, and there were many kinds, including reindeer skins, bear skins, wolf skins, fox skins, and mink skins...the most precious of which was naturally as pure as snow. The arctic fox fur and the magnificent purple mink fur are simply peerless treasures that can make the ladies of Kyoto fall in love with them!

"Blessed by the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman! Aha! Although the voyage to the extreme northern sea is treacherous and the sea fog is overwhelming, it is not as dangerous as it is said in the legend!... On the contrary, once these precious furs are transported back to Kyoto, they will be very dangerous. Dozens of times, hundreds of times the huge profits!..."

"Hmm... the furs of these horses are indeed okay... but there is no gold dust!..."

"Aha! Murakami-kun, in fact, we can return! If we return now, with the speed of the ocean boat, we will definitely be able to return to Ezo before November freezes!..."

Satisfied with the exchange of precious furs, the soldier monk Watanabe Masumi came up with the idea of ​​returning. At this time, Murakami Jitong was a little reluctant. Before leaving, the Patriarch carefully told him to look for the gold dust for the transaction, but there was no trace of it yet! …

"Buddha bless! Mr. Watanabe, let's go east and circle the extreme north coast! According to the local tribe, the northeast is the reindeer's deer department, which occupies a vast snowfield, and there are many legendary sacred mountains...they There must be a good and better fur in my hand... Maybe there is even more precious gold dust!..."

"...Okay! Murakami-kun, then I will accompany you on this journey again!...However, we have to agree in advance that when we reach the peninsula on the east coast of the Extreme North Sea, we will return at full speed. I heard that the winter here can Frozen ice stones, if you can't spend the winter here, you won't have a good time..."

At the insistence of Murakami Jitong, the Zhayang boat continued eastward along the Extreme North Sea, and came to the snowy coast occupied by the Kamchatkachu tribe. It was October in a blink of an eye, and they encountered many scattered deer tribes one after another, and saw the magnificent herd of deer migrating on the snow field. Compared with the horse tribe of the Ewen people, the population of the deer tribe is obviously smaller, most of them are a group of dozens or hundreds of people, and it is safer to trade!

Perhaps because they seldom trade with the outside world, these deer tribes have many fine furs in their hands. Although the population is smaller, the arctic fox fur and sable fur they own, both in quantity and quality, exceed the horse department of the Ewen people!

The monk soldier Watanabe Masumi held the delicate and moist top-quality fur, and exclaimed excitedly. Chuan Fengxing Murakami Jitong also received two small bags of alluvial gold, although it was only two or three catties, about 40 taels, but it was not a small amount, at least he could pay the owner.

You must know that in Heguo at this time, according to the gold price of Koshu in Kanto, 1 tael of gold is worth about 4 guan of copper coins, and 40 taels is 160 guan. The approximate price of rice in Kanto is 0.7 guan and 1 shi. These two small bags of placer gold are 228 shi of rice, and they are all real net income that is not damaged by businessmen's trading! As for the low-level warriors who are entrusted with 50 shi, what they can really get is 40% of the land income, which is 20 shi of rice a year...

To put it simply, the 40 taels of gold is at least the annual salary of ten junior warriors! And the two jugs of wine used to exchange 40 taels of gold cost less than 400 Wen, which is a "mere" 400 times the huge profit!

"Blessed by the Buddha! These ignorant deer tribes domesticate so many reindeer, wandering in the endless snowfields, grazing the deer while hunting wild animals. They don't seem to know the value of fur and gold dust. They only need a pot of warming water Rice wine, a bag of coarse salt for cured meat, you can exchange for a bundle of furs, a small bag of gold dust!…”

"Blessed by the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman! Aha! Such a deal is really worth it, it's a great deal!...But it's strange, they don't like our iron axe, and they think it's not as good as the stone axe in their hands? Rice wine is very popular. , for this hot drink, I am willing to take out as much fur as I want!..."

"Well, Buddha's testimony!... These tribes in the snowfield are really simple, even a little silly!"

"Aha! Blessed by the Bodhisattva! Hiccup!...Since the tribes on Ezo Island are called Ezo, then these tribes in the extreme northern snowfield should be called Luyi! Like those big deer with long horns, stupid Luyi! belch!…"

"Deer barbarian? Good! It's really good to be blessed by the Buddha! ... When I return to the Shengshan Pavilion, I must report to the owner! The deer barbarian trade in the extreme north can be done, and it can be done freely!..."

The first snow in October fell on the gray ground and gradually covered everything. Murakami Jitong and Watanabe Masumi sat side by side on the bow of the boat, opened a jar of rare sake, and drank together against the sea breeze. They lamented the difficulties and rewards of this voyage to the extreme north, and also lamented the simplicity and stupidity of the Kancha and Jiazhu Department.

It's just that they were full of spirits at that time, thinking about their achievements after returning to Shengshan Pavilion. But they never expected that in order to cover the wine flowing out of the ocean-going ships along the way, in order to survive the bitter cold winter...the more "simple" Chukchi camp hunters have already driven reindeer and big dog sleds from the poles in the starry night. The snow field in the north goes south!

And these "simple" tent hunters did not bring any cumbersome fur goods. They just clenched their compound bows and brought bags full of bone arrows, ready to use more "stupid" methods to obtain the drinks they desperately needed and could save their lives in winter! …

So, in the middle of October, when the snow covered the backs of the feet, the moored ocean-going ships and the fleet of people who landed to fetch water were finally caught up by the tent hunters who had been following them for a long time. It was an unexpected early morning, when a team of twenty Chukchi hunters appeared at the end of the snowfield in the northwest. Facing the rising sun in the east, they saw the five-masted ship docked on the coast at a glance!

Then, Buddha witnesses! Teams of howling huskies, sleighs attacking rapidly, and Chukchi hunters wearing wing armor and fierce archery, became unforgettable nightmares for everyone on board! …