In a blink of an eye, the Song army had been in Kunzhou for three months. The Song army had basically figured out the terrain characteristics of Kunzhou. Kunzhou was square, with a width of thousands of miles from north to south and east to east. There was a volcanic rock mountain range in the middle, covered by dense forests.

The grasslands are mainly distributed in the north and east, especially the northeast grasslands. Although there are also gentle mountainous areas in the middle, they are mainly grasslands, stretching thousands of miles long and more than three hundred miles wide. They have abundant grasses and can raise hundreds of thousands of war horses.

The grassland in the southeast is slightly smaller, but it is hundreds of miles long and wide, so you can raise cattle, sheep and other livestock. Moreover, it is affected by the warm current and makes it warmer, so horses can move to spend the winter.

The enemies on the island are gone, but the beasts have become the biggest enemy of war horses. There are no tigers in Kunzhou, but there are a group of wild wolves and countless brown bears, as well as foxes and a large number of elks and sika deer.

The only threat to the horses was to wipe out all the wild wolves and hundreds of Song soldiers in a month, led by the Kun tribe hunters.

The first batch of 5,000 mares and all stallions also moved from Songma Island to Kunzhou two months ago. They began to run on the boundless grasslands. The Song army built a large number of horse sheds on the west side of the island, set up a small tent, stationed 500 soldiers and horse-raising officials.

In addition, the Song army hired more than 100 young Kun people from the Kun tribe based on the conditions of grain, salt and cloth, and began to train them to ride horses and raise horses. In just one month, these more than 100 Kun tribes became outstanding assistants to horse raising officials.

Starting from July, officials hired hundreds of Kun men and women to help with grass. At this time, the grass was relatively abundant. The grass was dried and shipped to the southern end of the east coast, where horses were wintering.

Although it is midsummer in July, the weather in Kunzhou is not hot and the climate is more suitable.

According to the plan, the Song Dynasty would take at least two years to operate Kunzhou and only start to march towards Sakhalin Island after gaining a foothold in Kunzhou. However, the front of the Song army still needed to explore Sakhalin Island and go to the island to survey the terrain.

This time, Fan Ning led the army to the north. The three of them had their own division of labor. Di Qing led the army and the craftsmen to build the first city in Kunnan Bay to the south, preparing to be the location of Kunnan County.

Zhao Zong was actually responsible for arranging horse raising, which was the top priority. Their main purpose of occupying Kunzhou was to raise horses. They started raising breeding two months ago. Their goal was to add two thousand new horses next year.

Fanning led a thousand troops to continue to explore the surrounding islands, destroy the hostile tribes, and conquer the gentle tribes. In addition to the dozen islands on the east and west sides of Kunzhou, they importantly explored the archipelago in the north, which was later the Kuril Islands.

Several of the larger islands, such as the four northern islands in Japan later, were inhabited by a small number of natives, but most of these natives were docile and kind. Compared with the same tribes in Kunzhou, their number was much smaller, ranging from dozens to more than a hundred, and they all made a living by hunting and fishing.

That morning, after several days of sailing, Fanning's fleet of fifty large ships gradually arrived at the northern Sakhalin Island.

There was also an elder of the Kun clan. He was the oldest man in the Kun clan. He was about fifty years old and his name was Sapu. In the native language, it means tree.

Sap was the chief of the former northeast tribe, while the chief of the northwest tribe was his eldest son. Now the two tribes have merged again and he has become the elder of the tribe and is in charge of divine power.

Sap lived on Sakhalin Island for forty years. He led his tribe to migrate from Sakhalin Island to Kunzhou ten years ago. As soon as he got on the island, they were hit by the Kunnan tribe with heavy casualties and were forced to surrender.

Three years ago, his three wives and several daughters were snatched away by the Kunnan tribe. At the same time, they were forcibly divided into two tribes by the Peninsula tribe, making them even weaker and unable to resist the bullying of the Kunnan tribe.

It was not until the Kunnan tribe that the Song army completely wiped out, and the wife and daughter who were stolen were returned to him.

From this point, Sap was full of gratitude to Song Jun. After spending several months together, he could speak more than a hundred Chinese words. Although his pronunciation was not good, he could barely understand it.

Along the way, he told Fanning that there were very few Kun people on Sakhalin Island, only more than 1,000 people. Since their tribe moved south to Kunzhou ten years ago, there was only one tribe left on Sakhalin Island, about 300 people, who made a living by hunting and fishing.

Among the people who followed Fan Ning to investigate, in addition to Xu Qing, Zhu Yuanfeng's eldest grandson Zhu Lin. According to Fan Ning's idea, it would be best to build an island, but Zhu Lin did not meet a satisfactory island after searching for a circle. He hoped to find an island that was both rich in resources and could raise horses.

However, one of the islands touched him a little. It was dozens of miles wide and more than two hundred miles long. There were also large grasslands on the island and natural harbors. Sap called it Black Island. This island was actually Guohou Island, one of the four northern islands later.

It was just because the area was a bit large and I didn’t know that the court would not reward the island to his grandfather. Zhu Lin was filled with worries.

Fan Ning understood his mood, so he patted him on the shoulder and smiled, "Those more than a hundred stallions are crucial to building a ranch. The emperor is very clear about this credit. Since he promised to give your grandfather's land, it would not be too small, and it was not the land of Kunzhou, but an island, and he should agree."

Zhu Lin nodded, "My grandfather wanted to raise thousands of horses. This was his dream since childhood, and it was also mine."

Fan Ning smiled, "This is actually the dream of every Song Dynasty!"

"There!"

Sap suddenly pointed to the looming land in the distance and shouted, "We're here!"

In fact, Sakhalin Island and Kunzhou are very close, with a Zonggu Strait in the middle. It was just that Fanning and others first explored the archipelago in the north, and then turned around to Sakhalin Island, which took several days.

Salin's pronunciation was very strange, but everyone still understood and everyone cheered.

Seeing Akihito and Akiri were the most excited, Fan Ning smiled and patted them on their heads, "What are you happy about?"

The two brothers sighed, "It's not easy! I finally arrived after walking for a few days."

Fan Ning smiled and said, "If I told you that the southernmost part of this big island is less than a hundred miles away from Kunzhou, would you still be so excited?"

The two brothers were stunned, "Is it so close?"

Fanning pointed to the guide and asked Sap with a smile, "Elder, are you very close?"

Sap knew what he meant and smiled, "It's very close!"

Akihito scratched his head and muttered, "If we had known it was so close, we would have just rowed a canoe."

"You can go back with canoe!"

Fanning laughed and unfolded the map of Sakhalin Island he drew, which was drawn according to his later memories.

It is more than two thousand miles long, hundreds of miles wide in the north, and very narrow in the south, like a long pole, only more than twenty miles wide. At the southern end is a harpoon-shaped bay.

Fanning pointed to the map and asked Sapu, "Elder, is there any place that does not freeze in winter?"

Sapp didn't understand what he meant, Fanning smiled again and said, "In winter, there is no ice in the water!"

After saying it twice, Sap finally understood.

He quickly pointed to the southernmost bay and said, "Here!"

Fanning nodded and thought to himself that there is indeed a port on Sakhalin Island that is not frozen. It is probably affected by the Black Tide tributary. The southernmost bay does not freeze. It is a good place to establish a military city base.

Under the guidance of Sap, the fleet docked directly in a bay. Everyone was immediately shocked by the endless grassland in the distance. Akihito stuttered and said, "Can livestock be here also be available!"

Fanning smiled, ignored his surprise, and said to everyone: "Get off the boat and take a look!"

Fanning's interest in Sakhalin is not used here for horse raising. In fact, only the south can be used in Sakhalin. The north is too long for winter and is covered with ice and snow for half a year. Only crops can be grown from April to September.

The role of Sakhalin Island is its strategic value. It establishes a supply military city here. Once the time is ripe, the Song and Liao battle in Youzhou, and the fleet of the Song Dynasty naval army advanced along the Hei River or Tumen River and could directly enter the Khitan lair.

The Liao Kingdom has a vast territory and governs hundreds of ethnic groups, but once its nest is destroyed, its rule everywhere is likely to fall apart.

Fanning landed in the middle of Sakhalin Island. They stayed in this area for two days and visited the local tribal leaders under the guidance of Sap. The natives here are also kind, simple, and hospitality.

They specially took out fresh bear and venison to entertain Fanning and his army, and the army brought out hundreds of jars of fine wine. Everyone drank and ate meat around the bonfire. The girls danced in the fire. Although they could not speak, they gathered happily.

In the firelight, Fanning whispered the word "Great Song" to Sap, and then pointed to the leader of the other tribe. Sap immediately understood Fanning's meaning and hoped that the other party would become a citizen of the Song Dynasty. Of course, the conditions were the same. They could live here for a long time or move south to Kunzhou.

Sap sat in front of the chief and drank and chatted with him, slowly chatting with him about their migration to Maoren Island. When he talked about his tribe being bullied, the other leader's eyes were flashing with anger. When he talked about the Song army annihilated the local tribes and helped them regain their stolen wife and daughter, the leader's eyes were full of gratitude, and he raised the wine bowl to Fanning and expressed his respect.

The next morning, Fanning led the army to bid farewell and left. He gave the other party a thousand pieces of cloth and a batch of daily necessities. The other party's leader was overjoyed and gave Fanning a hundred tiger skins and fifty bear skins as gifts.

The fleet began to turn around slowly and look at the high-footed wooden house in the distance. Sap pointed his head and smiled at Fanning, "Da Song, he, think about it!"

Fan Ning smiled and nodded. The other party should have discussed with the entire clan before making a decision, but at least it means that the leader himself was quite moved.
Chapter completed!