1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 120 Overseas Investigation ([-])

On the east bank, which the expedition team regards as a candidate location for the freight wharf, there is a recess facing inland, forming a small natural harbor. The entire port area is a small seaside plain surrounded by mountains on three sides. It is less than two square kilometers, and the only passage leading to the inland area to the west is a long and narrow valley about a mile long, and the other side of this valley is the coal mining area, and the geographical conditions are simply blessed by nature.If you choose this place as the landing point for construction, you only need to open a land channel about 1000 meters long between the port and the mining area, and the mined coal can be directly transported to the wharf for loading.In view of such convenient transportation conditions, the Ministry of Shipping has given a very high evaluation to this place, and believes that among the areas that have been inspected, this is the one that best meets the planning requirements of the future port area.

The views of the military and police department are also very intuitive. They believe that the geographical location surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea makes this place easy to defend and difficult to attack, which greatly reduces the defensive area and defensive pressure.The most important thing is that just three or 400 meters away on the sea opposite the port area, there are two adjacent islands, one south and one north, perfectly shielding the eastern sea surface of the port area.This means that ships entering and leaving the port area must pass through the narrow channel between the two islands and the east coast of the mainland.

It only needs to set up coastal defense guns on these two hilly islands, and it can cooperate with the north and south shore defenses of the port area to achieve firepower covering the entire waterway entering and leaving the port area without dead ends. perfect terrain for the enemy.Almost as soon as they sailed into the sea, members of the military and police department who saw the real scene voted in favor of choosing this place as a future cargo terminal and settlement.

Although from a geographical point of view, choosing this location in the eastern mining area will increase the voyage by about two to three hours compared with the western mining area, but the geographical environment here is indeed far better than those places that the expedition team surveyed in the western mining area two days ago .Especially from the perspective of military defense, the environment here is even better. It doesn't take too much effort to build this place into an impenetrable sea and land defense fortress. The advantages in security are enough to make up for it. This is the shortcoming of the voyage.

Of course, this place is not without faults. The most important point is that this place is far away from densely populated areas. It is about [-] nautical miles away from the nearest populated coastal area, and Hanoi, which is relatively densely populated, is even farther away. It has to go upstream along the Red River for dozens of kilometers from the Linhe area.

Hanoi has been designated as the capital city by the rulers of Vietnam since the eleventh century. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was already one of the largest cities in the entire Indochina Peninsula. Naturally, the Executive Committee intends to take Hanoi as the main target for absorbing local immigrants.However, Hanoi was still called "Tokyo" by the rulers of Annan at this time. Although it sounded a bit contrary, it was not until the [-]th century that the city was renamed "Hanoi" which was used in later generations.Of course, the so-called big city is only in the specific area of ​​the Indochina Peninsula. Compared with the size of the city under the Ming Dynasty, Hanoi is only a second-rate and lower-scale level.

Although the expedition team has tacitly decided to select this place as the main base of the overseas sub-mine, there is still one piece of survey work that needs to be done.After the two sailboats docked here, the armed guards escorted the mineral exploration team to land and began to move towards the inland mining area.

Although this place is a prosperous urban area on the satellite maps of later generations, it is still a dense jungle that can't be seen at a glance in this era. It is obvious that no one has set foot here.

"It seems that we need a strong logging team." Wang Tom flashed this idea in his mind, took the automatic rifle in his hand, and quickly stepped down from the springboard to the shore.

Although the latitude here is much higher than that of Sanya, it is still in the tropics, so the forest vegetation is quite similar to Sanya.Tian Yeyou, who was also pulled into the logging team for a few days at the beginning of the landing, recognized many tree species along the way.

After spending nearly half an hour through the woods, the expedition team arrived at the entrance of the canyon shown on the map.At this time, they found that they had encountered a small trouble-this so-called canyon was actually a river valley, and the bottom of the valley was a small river flowing from the mountain.Fortunately, there is a wide enough rocky beach at the bottom of the valley, and the passage is not a problem. You can even use the flat rocky beach here to build a railway leading to the sea.

However, Wang Tom is still worried about this unexpected situation: "If there is a heavy rain in the future, I am afraid that the river will wash away the passage here."

Qiao Zhiya, who has served in the engineering army, is very optimistic: "It's not as bad as you think. The terrain of this river valley is relatively straight. We can build a straight passage at a slightly higher place in the valley. It's not very difficult, but there may be a few places that need to be blasted."

"Our C4 explosives are only tens of kilograms." Tom Wang reminded him.

"You don't need to use high-end products like C4. The current black powder will do, but the amount may be relatively large." Qiao Zhiya said while looking at the terrain in the valley: "Counting mining, it might take a couple of months. A ton of black powder is enough... It seems that after going back, I will have to work overtime for a while."

After passing through the canyon, the team members found a small mountain lake, which was small in size but the water quality was very clear.Wang Tom announced that he would stop here to rest for 15 minutes before moving forward. If there were no tasks, the team members would probably take off their outfits and jump into the lake to have a good swim.Of course, before that, they will not forget to confirm whether there are Siamese crocodiles in this lake.

After a short rest, the expedition team continued to move forward, and after a few hundred meters, they arrived at the reserved exploration site. The forest here was sparser than that of the seaside area.The team members unloaded their backpacks, and except for a few personnel in charge of peripheral security, the others all took out engineering shovels equipped with special long handles.

"Wish us good luck!" After Tian Yeyou finished speaking, he took the lead in shoveling the engineer shovel into the soil under his feet.

Ten minutes later, the team members scattered around dug black coal from the soil under their feet.Although this was expected, the team members couldn't help cheering.

Three mining professionals collected the samples dug up by everyone, and then took the time to do a preliminary test.Soon Tian Yeyou announced the assessment result: "The coal seam here is buried very shallow, but the quality of the coal is very high. Judging from the samples we dug just now, it is basically clean coal with very low ash content. We are lucky, this The coal buried under the mining site, whether it is used for steam coal or coking coal, is a very good quality product!"

Tian Yeyou's identification results are only the beginning of the entire exploration work.Now that the nearby coast has been basically selected as the future port, the area to be explored is not limited to the area just excavated.In the following day, all the people in charge of the landing expedition played the role of miners, digging more than a dozen sample collection points within an area of ​​nearly three square kilometers, so that when everyone returned to the landing point in the afternoon Exhausted.A few relatively weaker members plunged into the tent without even washing their faces and fell asleep.

But this is not the end of the exploration work. On the seventh day of the expedition, the content of the work is still to walk among the mountains and forests to dig ore samples under the leadership of the exploration team.In addition to the coal in the mountains and plains here, the expedition team was also lucky to discover a limestone mine. In this way, only a few cement kilns need to be built locally in the future, and there is no need to transport cement across the sea from Sanya for a long time.

After these two days of tossing, the team members finally understood why Tian Yeyou was always clamoring to change careers.It's only been two days, and everyone feels a little unbearable, but members of mining exploration like Tian Yeyou and the others stay in the wild all year round. It's commonplace, and even Wang Tom, who claims to be physically strong, had to bow down after carrying the ore back.

"I must give credit to you when I go back." During dinner, Wang Tom solemnly expressed his admiration to the exploration team members.

Tian Yeyou waved his hand and said: "It's just a job, it's not a big deal, and it doesn't affect our business if we don't make meritorious deeds. We still have to continue to live and sleep. Instead of asking for credit, let's pick some apprentices. Bring a group of apprentices out sooner, and we will be freed sooner."

Xie Chun agreed with this very much: "After we go back, we will jointly issue a special report to the executive committee to implement what you said as soon as possible. If you don't do it, I don't know. Your work is really hard, and it is harder than us as seafarers. It’s much more painful, just this physical strength is not something ordinary people can sustain.”

"I see that you have worked very hard these two days. I didn't expect you to be able to survive with your small body." Tian Yeyou praised with a smile.

"These two days reminded me of the first two weeks when I just wore it. Everyone was working hard. At that time, I was thinking, didn't we wear it to enjoy the blessing? Why did we become migrant workers?" Xie Chun shook his head with a smile, as if he already disdained his thoughts at the time: "But now I feel different. Although I am tired, I already have enough motivation in my heart."

"What motivation?" Tom Wang asked curiously.

Xie Chun looked up at the sky at a 45-degree angle, and said slowly, "This is our business, and this is our world!"

"Tch, will you die if you don't pretend to be aggressive?" Everyone showed their middle fingers to Xie Chun without hesitation.

　A little suggestion for reading this book: Due to the needs of the plot, there are a lot of geographical location and geographical environment descriptions in this book. In order to facilitate reading and understanding of the content in the book, it is recommended that friends who are not very familiar with world geography download the software GoogleEarth.This software can easily view 3D maps around the world, and I believe it will help you better integrate into the environment described in this book.The author himself has long been used to refer to 3D maps when reading historical or military works, and perform some pushing (nao) and acting (bu), and the sourness can't stop.The functions of this software are very powerful. Not only can you look at the earth, but you can also look at the stars, the moon, and Mars.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)