1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 117 Overseas Investigation ([-])

After a preliminary inspection of the terrain here, the members of the Military and Police Department generally agreed that it is best to pray that there will be no hostile forces launching a large-scale attack on this place from the sea in the future. One side is nothing short of a nightmare.In the foreseeable future, the Traveling Group is definitely unlikely to send heavy troops to garrison overseas. In view of these circumstances, the Traveling Group needs to carefully consider what attitude it should take towards the current Annan regime.

Of course, the expedition team did not make a conclusion just by looking at this place. In fact, Hongji's mining area is very large, and there are far more places where cargo docks can be built, and many specific geographical environments It is difficult to see the advantages and disadvantages only from the map, and the most intuitive feeling can only be obtained by on-site inspection.

When the expedition team got in touch with the base camp through the radio that night, they got good news. The first trial-produced steam engine had been installed in Tiandu Iron Mine and passed the trial run.Due to the limitations of the processing technology, the heat conversion efficiency and stable working time of this steam engine are still at a relatively low level, but the input of mechanical power will undoubtedly mean that the production efficiency of Shuo Group will step up to a new level.

While the news made the expedition members rejoice, it also brought a lot of pressure.The use of the steam engine means that the demand for fuel will increase rapidly, and whether it can have a stable coal input channel will most likely become a bottleneck restricting the development speed of the Crossover Group.From this point of view, the success or failure of the expedition team will directly affect the future development route of the Transit Group.

Early the next morning, the rejuvenated expedition team left the anchorage of the previous night after a rest and headed slowly westward along the coastline.Because the information of each mining site is relatively detailed, the task of the mining exploration team is relatively simple. When the time comes, just go ashore and go to the place marked on the map to collect ore samples.The real difficulty of this inspection is to find a port location that satisfies all parties. Although there are materials from later generations as a reference, the Executive Committee still has to combine the conclusions of the field inspection to make a final choice.

The main task of the expedition team today is to find the next suitable port for development. The selection of this site needs to take into account the local coastal water depth, water environment, distance from the mining site, and the difficulty of land transportation. Including the difficulty of military defense that the Military and Police Department attaches great importance to.

The location of this mining area is actually a huge peninsula protruding into the sea, and opposite it is another peninsula. The fan-shaped bay is the key area of ​​today's investigation.

This fan-shaped bay is actually the estuary shared by several rivers, so the coast is almost full of large tidal flats, and the expedition team tried to go around the inland side of the peninsula that contains coal mines to see if there are any coastal areas here. Ideal for trimming large cargo docks.

After arriving at the other end of the peninsula, the expedition team stopped the ship and sent team members to survey and sample the land conditions here.What makes the mineral exploration team more happy is that the mines here have no signs of being exploited artificially, which means that the possibility of attracting hostile forces will be greatly reduced.But at the same time, they also discovered another depressing reality-this place is completely deserted, and if the executive committee wants to carry out large-scale mining of coal mines here, how to introduce local immigrants will still be a problem. Trouble.

After investigating all the way, there are a few places that seem suitable for building docks, but they have been rejected by the Ministry of Shipping and the Military and Police Department one after another.The reason for the Ministry of Shipping is that these places are either too far away from the planned mining point, which will cause relatively large troubles for future logistics and transportation, or they are located within the river estuary, where the water depth and width are different. It is very limited, and it is not suitable for a freight terminal where a large number of heavy cargo ships will frequently enter and exit in the future.

This is also due to the fact that there are some contradictory parts in the previous order issued by the executive committee. On the one hand, it is required to have a "long-term vision" when inspecting the location of the terminal, and must fully consider the scale of cargo transportation in five or even ten years. On the other hand, it seems to be eager for quick success, requiring the future terminal address to be "as close as possible to the mining point" in order to reduce the amount of engineering required to open up the land transportation channel in the early stage.It's no wonder that several alternative locations along the way were shot down by the Ministry of Shipping.

The reasons given by the Military and Police Department are similar to those rejected the day before. The places we inspected today basically belong to the coastal plain terrain.According to the opinion after the internal collegiality of the Military and Police Department, these places today are not even as good as the anchorage where they stayed overnight. At least there are several commanding heights at the port out to sea that can be used to build fortifications.However, once a war breaks out in these coastal plains investigated today, there is no way to defend them. Should the miners be allowed to dig trenches along the coastline?
The commissioner of the Ministry of Agriculture is very satisfied with these places. In his opinion, the alluvial plains near the river estuaries are fertile and suitable for large-scale planting of food crops.However, this view was quickly refuted by others - the Red River Delta, one of Vietnam's largest grain-producing areas, is just a few dozen nautical miles to the west, and the conditions and scale of grain planting there are no matter in this era or hundreds of years After all, it is quite astonishing. If the Traveling Group wants to reach that level, I am afraid that it will have to wait until all the coastal plains on the west coast of Hainan Island are reclaimed to grow grain.In this kind of place, there is basically no need to consider the issue of food shortages when setting up sub-bases.Moreover, this is an overseas base, and manpower has always been a problem. I am afraid that the executive committee can't wait to turn everyone here into a miner, so how can they separate the manpower to engage in agricultural development.

Seeing that the time has come to the afternoon, the members of the expedition team have become less interested because they have not been able to find a suitable target.Upon seeing this, Wang Tom simply ordered to stop today's expedition, and organized members to conduct a wild hunting activity before dark.

The members immediately cheered when they heard the news, and some even shouted the slogan "King is wise".After all, most of the members are young people in their 30s and [-]s, so they are naturally very interested in activities like hunting.However, due to the conditions in the country before crossing, there are not many people who really have hunting experience, so it is not a simple matter to temporarily organize a wild hunt.

Wang Tom asked Old Morgan and Bearded Johnson to stay and guard the boat. Although the two of them had hunting experience, their Chinese proficiency was limited.Then the remaining 15 people were divided into three groups, led by several experienced people.

As for the weapons used for hunting, Tom Wang would not be so bold as to let a group of rookies start shooting directly with their guns. He took out two compound bows and an MP9 military crossbow from the cabin of the "Speed" and distributed them to three teams.These few items are all his personal collections, and this is the first time he has brought them out to show after time travel.

Among the members, there is no lack of knowledgeable people. The knowledgeable Xie Chun took the bow and shouted: "HOYT's carbon spider! This is a rare good thing in China." Then he grabbed another bow, tsk tsk Repeatedly said: "Chill-R from Matthews, local tyrant, please be my friend!"

Tom Wang smiled and said, "Do you also like playing with bows and arrows?"

Xie Chun shook his head and said, "I can't say I like it, but I just know a thing or two. I have played in the archery gym before, but this is my first time hunting in the wild."

Wang Tom said: "Then you have a try, these two bows are both 70-pound bows."

Xie Chun said in astonishment: "There will be no 70-pound bows in the archery hall. I remember that if you exceed 60 pounds, you will be banned from the competition. I have only played with 50-pound bows before."

Roger next to him interjected: "We've always played with 70-pound bows. Be careful, you don't flash your waist."

Xie Chun was naturally dissatisfied when he heard this. He put on the finger guard that Tom Wang handed over, took a deep breath, and pulled it hard. The first time he couldn't pull it away, he tried again, and the bow was barely pulled away. Yes, but Xie Chun's face was flushed from suffocation, and it seemed that he had almost reached his limit.

Roger shook his head and said, "You'd better play with a crossbow. A 70-pound bow is not suitable for you. Even if you can draw it, you can't shoot a few times. It will be difficult for you to hit the target."

The MP9 military crossbow that Wang Tom took out was not a good looking one either. This is a weapon-grade crossbow that is actually equipped with special forces.In addition to being equipped with an optical sight on the crossbow, the thickened steel wire and eight-wheel component pulley block make the range and power of this crossbow greatly exceed that of ordinary hunting crossbows. The effective range exceeds 150 meters. When hunting wild animals, The crossbow arrows can directly crush the bones of animals instead of being blocked by the bones, and the lethality is very powerful.

Wang Tom didn't want to waste the limited bullets to let these rookies go hunting, so he designated three cold weapons as the main weapons for hunting.Of course, perhaps the use of cold weapons will make this hunting more fun. After all, this kind of weapon can make the sport of hunting more return to nature.

In addition to all personnel needing to carry walkie-talkies to report their directions at any time, Tom Wang also asked everyone to take off their camouflage jackets and wear only conspicuous white T-shirts on their upper bodies. accidental injury.Of course, for the sake of safety, the members of the military and police department assigned to the three teams were also equipped with four guns, two long and two short, but the gunmen would only shoot if there was a situation that endangered the lives of the members.

(End of this chapter)