My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 431 Changes of the Aristocratic Classes Beyond the Great Wall, Sinicization of Sakhalin Island!
In the summer of the second year of the Qianlong reign, at Miaotun.

Fluffy white clouds are being exhaled by the green forests stretching for hundreds of miles, and slowly cross the sea to the higher and more distant blue sky.

At the edge of the blue sky, a cluster of dark shadows could be faintly seen; those shadows were Sakhalin Island.

Li Fu was standing on the green forest-surrounded Telin Mountain, at the foot of Yongning Temple Pagoda.

Yongning Temple was built during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. Even the dilapidated double-eaved brick house next to Li Fu and the two stone tablets standing there were built during the Yongle period and were rebuilt during the Xuande period.

This brick building was built during the Yongle reign of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, and the stone tablet was inscribed with the Yongning Stele Inscription, which stated that "the emperor bestowed upon them official titles and seals, bestowed upon them clothing, rewarded them with cloth and paper money, and generously rewarded them before they returned. They established garrisons and gathered the people of their former tribes, making them self-governing."

Unfortunately, this area was easily ceded to Yishan, a descendant of Hongchun, in later generations, and was only bombarded by the Russian Kingdom with cannons.

Emperor Hongli had specifically instructed Li Fu to preserve the two stone tablets.

After all, this is important material evidence that the local Haixi Jurchens submitted to China during the Ming Dynasty, which will help him to shape and integrate a new great nation in the future.

Li Fu spent a lot of money to recruit craftsmen to build pavilions for the two stone tablets, dig drainage ditches, and set up guard posts to protect them.

Two Solon soldiers, clad in gleaming silver armor, were taking turns waiting here, their eyes fixed on Sakhalin Island ahead.

Behind Li Fu, there were squads of armored soldiers, one after another, disappearing into the jungle.

The blue leopards are also gradually burrowing into the northern sky, emitting hoarse cries.

Li Fu knew that the emperor had ordered them to eliminate the Russians who had invaded the area and established their own strongholds, and that at least twenty of them had to be eliminated for the mission to be considered complete.

Li Fu could only close his eyes and sigh in response.

He had already guessed that the newly enthroned Emperor Qianlong was pursuing a more extensive actual territory for the Qing Dynasty.

He was definitely deliberately placed here, and it will be difficult for him to go back unless he does an exceptionally good job, in which case he can retire and return to his hometown, or rather, return to his roots.

Even if it was the latter, he still had to work diligently for the emperor.

Because he missed his hometown terribly, thinking about it day and night.

After all, having spent so long outside the Great Wall, reaching the pinnacle of power was no longer his dream.

He also knew that his followers were almost forgetting about him, and that new leaders of Shihlin would replace him.

Therefore, during the period when Li Fu was ordered to establish military farms, he did his job very seriously. He maintained his integrity and encouraged the people who had moved here to cultivate the land. He did not accept any bribes and even impeached the officials of the Sanxing Deputy Commander's Office who had extorted money from the residents of Sakhalin Island when they were giving them rewards near Pulong'ai.

Pulong'ai was the place where the original inhabitants of Sakhalin Island crossed the Strait of Tartary to come to the mainland and offer precious furs as tribute to the imperial court.

The Shumu City, under the jurisdiction of the Sanxing Deputy Governor's Office, was established here to receive these tribute furs and to bestow rewards, as well as some necessities needed by the residents of Sakhalin Island.

This system is known as the "Salary of Wulin" system.

This system also implicitly demonstrated the Qing Dynasty's rule over the inhabitants of Sakhalin Island, which is why it was not conducted directly through trade.

The purpose was to use the pretext of tribute and reciprocal rewards to gradually influence the local residents' acceptance of Qing rule through economic exchange.

As the Vice Minister of War in charge of agricultural settlements, Li Fu had the power to submit memorials and supervise the process.

His presence effectively maintained this order.

“When a person is born, his nature is good.”

"Natures are similar, but habits make them different."

……

But staying in the sparsely populated Miaotun was just too boring.

Even with the active land reclamation efforts of the Han Chinese who came here, the amount of fertile land still far exceeds the amount of natural forests.

Li Fu simply used his spare time from farming to teach the local children to read and write, instilling in them literacy and traditional moral values.

The children of the Jurchen, Oroqen, and Hezhe people who had lived in the area for generations, as well as the Han children who had migrated or been exiled there, all listened to him teach the most basic lessons.

Logically speaking, these people are not people for him, a great Confucian scholar, to teach.

But isn't that boring?

Besides, Li Fu also knew that the emperor would definitely like it.

The local indigenous people, however, found the allure of this Confucian education irresistible, as many of them did not yet have their own written language.

Li Fu even promoted Hongli's new phonetic notation method here, so that the children of these Hezhe and Oroqen people could learn Chinese characters as soon as possible.

After all, these people did not grow up in a Chinese-speaking environment, and it would be very difficult to educate them using the previous phonetic teaching method.

So, as the evening glow filled the sky, the sound of reading could be heard from the small courtyard near the Nurgan Regional Military Commission where Li Fu lived, though the pronunciation was somewhat awkward.

At that moment, the Hezhe people from Sakhalin Island, who were preparing to cross the sea back, turned around upon hearing these sounds, revealing curious expressions.

When Xu Ben's family arrived, they were surprised to hear the Han language and looked in the direction of the former Nurgan Regional Military Commissioner's Office where Li Fu was staying.

Li Fu also looked at them.

Therefore, Li Fu walked towards them.

Li Fu first asked Xu Ben's nephew, Xu Jingxi, "Who are you, and where do you come from?"

Xu Jingxi, a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations, looked quite haggard despite his journey through wind and rain, but he remained refined and courteous. After bowing to Li Fu, he replied:
“We are the Xu family of Qiantang. My father is currently the Vice Minister of the Imperial Clan Court, and my uncle, whose name is Ben, is a Grand Secretary. He came from Jiangnan and was ordered to move here.”

Li Fu then received the imperial edict from the officials who were escorting them.

After reading the imperial edict, Li Fu sighed slightly.

Then Li Fu said to Xu Jingxi, "Since we are here, let's make the best of it; the area outside the pass is also good, as it is a good place to educate the local people and spread the way of the sages."

"The student will keep in mind the teachings of the great-grandfather."

Xu Jingxi bowed in response.

Then, Li Fu said, "The higher-ups require that you be compensated with the original amount of government land, but the land that has already been cultivated cannot be given to you because it has already been registered and is owned by someone; we can only give you the uncultivated land at the foot of Telin Mountain, and you can hire people or cultivate it yourselves."

Xu Jingxi couldn't help but part his lips slightly.

"Don't worry too much. The land here is very fertile once it's cultivated. Although it can only be harvested for one season, it's extremely productive."

"In addition, the Chinese cabbage grown here is much sweeter and more productive than that grown elsewhere. Remember to buy some seeds from local farmers in July and plant them. Winters here are long and there are no vegetables to buy, so everyone has to rely on this to get through the winter. Your Xu family can get more land and produce more to sell to local herders and hunters, who also need it. They can even use it to offset taxes."

Li Fu smiled and comforted Xu Jingxi.

Xu Jingxi was completely bewildered.

But he could only be thankful that his Xu family had received a considerable amount of discounted silver from the government.

However, he soon discovered that commerce was underdeveloped here, and people preferred to trade in kind because silver had limited uses. Not only silver, but also antiques and jade faced the problem that few people were willing to trade them.

Aside from giving them away for free.

Because the locals were in dire need of essential supplies such as salt, cotton, coal, tea, and pepper, even if they exchanged gold, silver, antiques, and jade for these items, it wouldn't immediately meet their needs, so naturally, not many people were willing to engage in such transactions.

Otherwise, the Qing Dynasty court would not have accepted and bestowed only physical goods here.

Therefore, at this moment, Xu Jingxi desperately wanted to return to Jiangnan.

He looked at the vast swamps and woodlands that the government had given to the Xu family, almost with a crying face, and asked, "How can we grow rice and cabbage here?"

"The land there is perfect for growing Chinese cabbage, so your family shouldn't grow any grains."

"Firstly, I'm afraid your master and servants don't know how to farm; secondly, it's quite difficult to reclaim land immediately; thirdly, people outside the pass live by fishing, hunting, or herding, so they mainly eat meat and need vegetables to avoid getting septicemia from eating too much meat. However, this Chinese cabbage is extremely productive in the area and can be stored for a long time. We Mongols rely on it to get through the whole winter."

"Therefore, the reward that pleases us Mongols the most is not silk and satin, but the large number of Chinese cabbages that the court gives us every year. In our eyes, that is more precious than gold and silver."

"Because this way, we can sell a lot of cabbages at high prices to people in North Korea and further north, who need them more to get through the winter."

The capital city, the Ministry of Works.

After his entire clan was forcibly relocated to Miaojie, Xu Ben asked his Mongol colleague Bandi about what crops were suitable to grow outside the Great Wall.

Because he had to think about the survival of his family after they moved to Temple Street.

Xu Ben nodded after hearing this, and then looked carefully at the map in front of him, which depicted Northeast China, the Korean Peninsula, Sakhalin Island, and the Japanese islands.

(End of this chapter)