1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 114 Overseas Investigation ([-])

After sailing out of Victory Port, the two ships were not in a hurry, but handed over the ships to a group of newcomer sailors to operate them, and a few old birds were only responsible for directing their actions.This is also done to allow the new sailors to adapt to the life of the long voyage faster. After all, the training camp a few days ago was just around the door, and they went ashore after a few hours of training every day, but this trip may have to stay on the ship. For a few days, that feeling was completely different from the training camp.Fortunately, the physical fitness of the team members selected by the executive committee is not bad, so far no one has been found to have severe seasickness.

Because the water area from Shengli Port to Yazhou has already been familiar with the road many times, this time the expedition team did not choose to sail all the way close to the coastline, but went directly to the outer sea route after bypassing Luhuitou Cape. The south end of the east and west islands of Sanya Bay passes by and goes straight to Nanshanjiao.

The fleet made a short stop at the mouth of Ningyuan River near Yazhou to complete another small task of their trip - to bring the small hot water boiler and a bundle of pipe parts processed by the Ministry of Industry to the Yazhou Office.Having been notified in advance, the Cliff Office asked Zhang Guang to hire an ox cart to wait here. However, since there was no hoisting equipment on the "Flying Speed", everyone could only unload the huge boiler to the pier by building a springboard. The man carried and moved for nearly half an hour before he loaded the big guy weighing nearly three hundred catties onto the bullock cart.

Leaving the Ningyuan Estuary and starting again, because the westward route became unfamiliar, the old crew took over the driving work, chose a relatively stable offshore route, and recorded the coastal conditions according to the map while sailing.And at this time, the black technology of Travelers came in handy. Special personnel directly took photos of the coast, and then arranged them in the order of travel along the route, and marked some of the more important geographical identification locations.In this way, when the next batch of crew members run this route, they will have a very clear reference instead of just boring text route records.

About two hours later, the fleet arrived at Yinggezui, the southwest corner of Hainan Island.The largest salt field in southern China, the Yinggehai Salt Field, is located here.The place near the sea here is an alluvial plain of tens of square kilometers, and most of this plain was used to build saltworks in later generations. In the 80s, the annual production of sea salt here had reached 27 tons , in the 17th century, it is simply an astronomical figure.

The Yinggehai area has always been an important area in the development plan of the Executive Committee. The area where the salt farm can be built is extremely large, at least ten times that of the Salt Farm Commune outside the Shengli Port. As long as this area is fully developed, the future of the Crossing Group The chemical production raw materials basically have sufficient guarantee.However, the Executive Committee is still limited by the manpower bottleneck and has no time to carry out large-scale development here. At present, it can only do a little preliminary survey and preparation work.

According to the information at hand, the expedition team knew that there is a very large bay hidden behind the narrow inlet. Considering that the water depth in the coastal tidal flat area is very limited, the fleet docked on the coast and lowered the rubber assault boat from the boat. , entered the bay area through the narrow estuary for investigation.Since this is an unfamiliar area that has never been visited before, for safety reasons, only four fully armed members of the North American gang were carried on the assault boat.

After the assault boat sailed into the bay, Wang Tom was in charge of driving the boat, Roger was in charge of guarding, Morgan took the photographic equipment to make video records of the topography and landforms here, chemical expert Qiao Zhiya collected water samples at different locations, and through simple detection methods Determine the salinity of the sea water here.At this time, this place has not been developed as a salt field for production, and there is no human habitation in the entire coastal beach.In fact, even in later generations, the population of Yinggehai Town here is only over [-], which is far less than the population density of other coastal areas.

And the other members of the expedition team stationed on the coast were not idle either. Following the guidance of a few old birds, they took out several fishing rods and stood by the side of the boat to start fishing.In later generations, this place is one of the famous fishing grounds in the South China Sea. It is very rich in various fishery resources. However, in the current environment that is still in the original ecology, the fish schools in the offshore are also very dense. There is a reaction.By the time the team that went to the bay to investigate came back, everyone had already caught seventy or eighty sea fish, large and small.

Therefore, according to the tradition of the old seamen, the expedition team once again held a barbecue dinner at the seaside.Some of the team members just merged with the main force today, and now everyone has gathered together and re-introduced each other.

In this expedition team, as always, the military and police department accounted for the majority. Ten of the 17 members of the team belonged to the military and police department, including six members from the North American gang.Three of the remaining seven people are members of the mining exploration team under the Ministry of Industry, and they will complete the preliminary exploration tasks of the Honji Coal Mine.In addition, there are two people accompanying the Ministry of Shipping, who are mainly responsible for organizing and making route maps and writing logbooks, and at the same time undertake part of the hydrological and sea state exploration tasks.Of the remaining two, one was Qiao Zhiya's colleague from the Ministry of Chemical Industry, and the other was sent by the Ministry of Agriculture. His investigation content was the rice planting situation in Vietnam.

In view of the relatively high risk of this inspection mission, the executive committee did not arrange for female members to join this team.However, this group of guys who had a rare opportunity to show off obviously didn’t care much about it. Most of the team left Victory Port for the first time after crossing, and the purpose was a very famous scenic spot in later generations. This is definitely a rare trip. good job.

Tian Yeyou of the mining exploration team is not tall and has a dark complexion. If you just look at his appearance, it is almost difficult to distinguish him from the mountain people of the Li and Miao ethnic groups.Before crossing, he had worked in the North China Geological Survey Bureau for several years. He had always been engaged in field mining survey work, and he was considered a professional technical expert in the crossing group.While gnawing on the grilled fish, Tian Yeyou muttered, "The guys from the executive committee finally have some humanity. Seeing that it is not easy for us to squat in the mountains for a month or two, they know how to arrange for us to travel at public expense."

Wang Tom asked curiously: "Have you been here for so long? Isn't there just one or two mines in the inland?"

Tian Yeyou said angrily: "It's not so easy to find one or two mines. The few of us have been in the mountain since April, and we only came out of Lidong last week after being transferred. We have been prospecting at Damao. The phosphate rock and manganese ore in Damao are not buried as shallow as the Tiandu Iron Mine, which can be dug out with just a few hoes. We have to guide those Li miners to build tunnels and teach them how to dig mine veins underground without putting themselves in danger. Buried alive. I have been sleeping in the wild for thirty or forty days, look at the complexion of us, as long as we change our clothes, we can go directly to Lidong and pretend to be Li people!"

Qiao Zhiya smiled and comforted: "However, going to Hongji Port this time should not be too tiring. According to the information, the ore veins there are very shallow, and many places are even open-air. You just need to go directly to collect samples. "

Tian Yeyou shook his head and said: "General coal is easy to find, but anthracite and coking coal still need to work hard, especially coking coal, which only accounts for 10%-15% of coal reserves, so it may be difficult to find again."

"Isn't it better to prospect for mines in the beautiful coastal areas than to nest in the deep mountains and old forests?" Tom Wang joked with a smile.

Tian Yeyou nodded and said: "Everyone says that Halong Bay is beautiful. Before I crossed over, I wanted to take my girlfriend to see it together, but unfortunately I couldn't make it."

"Did your girlfriend participate in the time travel with you?" Qiao Zhiya asked curiously.

Tian Yeyou's face darkened, and he shook his head and said, "It's broken. The main reason is that I spend at least two-thirds of the time in the field in this job, so how can I have a good relationship? Let alone get married. Once I saw the news on the Internet that Mr. Tao and the others organized the crossing, so I simply resigned, left all the savings from working in the past few years to my parents, and then went to Guangzhou to join the gang."

Qiao Zhiya sighed, "This is really a sad story."

"What's even more sad is that after the time travel, there is no change at all, the same wilderness, the same loneliness." Tian Yeyou did not show sadness on his face, only deep helplessness: "I was thinking about time travel. In the future, can I change my job to be a landlord or something, bully the long-term workers, molested the maids, and experience the life of the dandies and villains. I didn’t expect it to be the same old job as before. Once I entered the mountain, it took dozens of days , basically only dealing with rocks and mud.”

"Don't be so depressed, everything will get better slowly. I think within two or three years at most, those of you who are engaged in technical work will be promoted. The future Haihan Republic needs not only politicians, but also a large number of technical officials. Only then can we sustain it.” Tom Wang had a clearer view of the future situation, and he comforted him and said: “It is estimated that when the two places Hongji and Shilu are developed, your main mission will change. At that time, relevant technical schools will definitely be established, and you technicians will be invited to be teachers, and then there will be no need to toss around in so many places."

Tian Yeyou smiled and said: "I'm afraid I'm used to running outside. At that time, if people like us are asked to sit in the office, they will feel unable to stay. I have already figured it out. I will take a look at it this time. How is the living environment there? If the environment is good, you might as well apply to the executive committee for permanent residency when you come back, anyway, there will definitely be a need for knowledgeable people to supervise the mining process.”

"Staying overseas? You have to think about it carefully!" Tom Wang shook his head and said, "No matter how good the environment is in that place, life is definitely not as convenient as the base camp."

"That's not necessarily the case. Besides, Vietnamese brides are so famous, I really want to see the benefits of seeing Vietnamese girls." Speaking of women, Tian Yeyou couldn't help opening his mouth and laughing, showing two rows of white teeth.

(End of this chapter)