Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 375 The Mysterious Ship

There are some coconut trees in the southeast of the island. The coconuts brought back from Yulin recently have made the travelers feel tired, so they are not interested in this poor resource.The island is barren and grassy, ​​dominated by shrubs, and the snow-white sandy beach looks a bit like a tropical island, but it is covered with all kinds of algae washed up by the sea.Some are quite economical.However, it is still far away from Lingao, so it is inconvenient to use.

Bai Guoshi led a few people to search for struvite while walking, and soon found a thick accumulation of struvite near the lagoon.Here in spring and autumn, there will be a large number of migratory birds staying by the lake.There are as many as 60 tons of struvite formed by the accumulation of passing migratory bird guano over the years on Dongsha Island.

It was summer at this time, only seagulls and other seabirds lived by the lagoon, and the air exuded a fishy smell.At this time, it started to rain, and Bai Guoshi put on the hat of his jacket—it was the rainy season in the Dongsha Islands.

"It's right here," Bai Guoshi tapped the next piece with a hammer to confirm, "This kind of stone, knock it down."

The sailors and soldiers on the ship, as well as the laborers specially allocated for this mining operation, braved the rain to board Dongsha Island one after another, and mined the struvite by hand.

Struvite stone is not very hard, so it is easy to mine.The mined ore was packed in rattan baskets and transported to Zhenhai.The flock of birds resting by the lagoon was disturbed by this, and immediately flew up and down over the island, cooing.

Bai Guoshi and Gao Xiaosong, who came to explore with the ship, conducted a survey on the island.Gao Xiaosong is very interested in Dongsha Island, but his starting point is different from that of Bai Guoshi. He pays more attention to the strategic location of Dongsha Island.

The Dongsha Islands are located at the hub of international routes from East Asia to the Indian Ocean and Asia, Africa and Australia. The routes from Guangzhou, Hong Kong to Manila or Kaohsiung, Taiwan pass through the nearby waters, which is of great shipping significance.In the 20th century, a weather station and a lighthouse were built here.The Ministry of Maritime Forces has long regarded this island as one of the intermediate links to Taiwan, and has a strong interest in it.Chen Haiyang specially assigned Gao Xiaosong to investigate here this time.

The two walked around in the rain, and found the shacks and drying racks left by the fishermen along the way. It is summer, and the fishermen have all retreated to the mainland, and the entire island is empty.

"There is a well!" Gao Xiaosong called out.

Not far away, there is indeed a stone fence around a well.

"It's useless." Bai Guoshi shook his head, "This kind of coral island can't hold fresh water. There is fresh water in the sand layer, but it is easily infiltrated by sea water. The water in the well should be fresher than sea water, and you can survive if you barely drink it. .”

"It's a pity." Gao Xiaosong felt regretful, "I heard that there is a well on Dongsha Island..."

"Except for Yongxing Island, none of the islands in the South China Sea have fresh water resources available." Bai Guoshi said, "If you want to stay permanently, you must install desalination equipment or a rain collection system—the rainy season here is not short. The amount of rainwater stored is still very large.”

"If fresh water is so scarce, it is impossible to send people there without some construction." Gao Xiaosong evaluated the situation of Xiadongsha Island. "The island is large enough, but there is no harbor for ships to park. Proceed to a temporary rest stop in Taiwan."

"Look!" Bai Guoshi suddenly yelled and yanked Gao Xiaosong's arm.

"What's the matter?" Gao Xiaosong was taken aback, what did he do in a flash, is there anything dangerous on Dongsha Island?

"What is this?!" Bai Guoshi pointed his finger at the sea area southeast of the island.

At first glance, there is a strange triangular iron frame on the surface of the sea, which is nothing at all.It was less than a meter out of the water.Now it is the ebb tide that comes out of the water, and the waves on the sea are undulating. It is really not easy to find if you don't look carefully.

Gao Xiaosong took a closer look and found it very familiar.

"Like the mast of a small boat..." Gao Xiaosong hesitated for a moment. He was a marine policeman, so he was very familiar with this thing. It was a typical tripod-style mast on an ocean-going fishing boat.

The two of them were suddenly terrified.Where does such a mast come from in this time and space?Gao Xiaosong had already drawn out his pistol.

"Don't panic." He said in a deep voice, "There is no one on the island, and no one can hide in a place like this. Let's go and find out."

"well--"

Gao Xiaosong first called Lin Chuanqing on the walkie-talkie, told him that there might be something on the island, and asked him to pay attention to the surrounding environment.

"What's the situation?" Lin Chuanqing was taken aback.

"It's not clear yet. Bai Guoshi and I will go over and investigate."

"Okay, you guys have to be careful."

"If there is a situation, I will shoot the police." Gao Xiaosong looked at the surrounding environment, "The place we are going to is at the southeast end of the island."

"clear."

The two of them walked carefully to the cape closest to the iron frame, where the coral reef was rocky and stretched down into the sea.The iron frame is in the atoll about 80 meters away from the cape.This will make it clearer, except that it is rusty and missing some components, this is a tripod mast of a ship.

Gao Xiaosong tried his best to look under the water, and it seemed that there was a vague shadow of a ship on the reef—because of the rain, the wind and waves were strong, and the transparency of the sea water was not high, so he couldn't see carefully.

"It looks like there is a boat under the sea." Gao Xiaosong concluded.

"This... this... what's going on..." Bai Guoshi's teeth were chattering.Obviously, neither the Ming Dynasty nor the Europeans had ships with such masts in 1629.

"Did you have any lost or missing ships during this operation?" Gao Xiaosong followed his suspicious wife and was finally tricked into the Fengcheng ship, so he knows little about the whole operation so far.

"No." Bai Guoshi said with certainty, "When passing through the wormhole, not a single ship was lost. Now, quite a few ships are parked in Bopu Port."

"That's weird—" Gao Xiaosong naturally understood the seriousness of it.If this is indeed a modern fishing boat in the 20th century, then besides them, there are people who do not belong to this time and space.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, accompanied by a strong east wind.The waves are surging, beating against the cape.The two stood there blankly, a little at a loss.

"Should I report to the Executive Committee immediately?"

"Not busy." Gao Xiaosong calmed down and wiped the rainwater off his face, "Let's find a place to shelter from the rain first, and talk to Captain Lin by the way, and we can discuss what to do. If you can't report it, just say you have a tripod Mast."

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Bai Guoshi said loudly, and the two returned from the Cape.There is no shelter on the island, and there is no place to shelter from the rain, so we had to trot all the way to hide under the fishermen's scaffolding. The scaffolding is actually riddled with holes, which is better than nothing.Because of the interference from the heavy rain, the walkie-talkie couldn't get through, so the two of them had to wrap up their jackets tightly and wait for the rain to stop.

Bai Guoshi looked at the torrential rain outside the scaffolding and the surging waves on the sea, and felt a sense of fear in his heart.

"Instructor Gao." Gao Xiaosong used to be the instructor of the Coast Guard, so everyone respectfully called him that, "Do you think the people on this boat are still on the island?"

"Although Dongsha Island is not too small, there is no place to hide people." Gao Xiaosong said, "We walked along the road just now and saw no fresh signs of human activities, so it should be gone." He then comforted Bai. Guo Shi, "Maybe it's not a ship at all."

"It's better like this." Bai Guoshi muttered, feeling extremely anxious.He would rather face a group of pirates in this time and space than meet a traveler who is not on the record.If this person appeared in front of Bai Guoshi now, he would shoot him in the head without hesitation, and make up seven or eight robberies -- no matter if this person is a man, woman or child, whether he is Chinese or a foreigner .

"Don't worry too much, even if it's a boat, it might just be an empty boat, which was unintentionally drawn into the wormhole." Gao Xiaosong saw that he was nervous and nervous, so he quickly comforted him.

"The place we crossed is in the Qiongzhou Strait, which is Dongsha Island."

"This," Gao Xiaosong poured out the rainwater accumulated on the skirt of his clothes, "maybe it's some space-time disturbance..."

After the rain stopped, Lin Chuanqing was called to the island. After listening to Gao Xiaosong's introduction, he was taken to the cape to see the strange iron frame.

Lin Chuanqing's face turned pale: "I'm familiar with this kind of mast...Ocean fishing vessels on the west coast of the United States often use this shape of mast."

"So maybe it's still an American ship?"

"It's very possible." Lin Chuanqing was an American fisherman, so his words are naturally very credible, "I wish I could go and have a look. The water isn't deep, is it?"

"About 8 meters." Gao Xiaosong said.

"Just dive down and have a look." Even though Lin Chuanqing said that, he still showed embarrassment. The depth of 8 meters is nothing to him and Gao Xiaosong. If you don't have diving equipment, you can just dive in.The problem is that there are sharks swimming around here, and he doesn't have the courage to swim with sharks.

"The warehouse of the Planning Commission seems to have diving equipment, shark-proof suits, shark repellent, etc., but there are none on the Zhenhai."

The three discussed it and decided to conduct a blanket search of the entire Dongsha Island first. If the people on the boat were still stranded on the island, they would be found.

"There should be no one on the island," Gao Xiaosong said, "just in case."

No matter if someone can be found.This situation must be blocked from the outside world. Except for them, no one else on the Zhenhai will be informed.After mining the struvite, go back and report directly to the executive committee

Immediately, the bird droppings were ordered to be suspended, and the whole ship entered a first-level alert. Sentinels were set up in every corner of the Zhenhai, and then a blanket search of the entire island began.

"If you find someone, try to catch them alive." Gao Xiaosong ordered.

(End of this chapter)