open sea

Chapter 1206 Mines
No one knows how long Chile's saltpeter belt is.

After the Great Lakes coalfield incident occurred in the Eastern Military Government, the military government issued an order not to reward silver for the exploration of Chilean saltpeter mines.

Because firstly, Chen Mu knew that there was no need to detect it, and secondly, Shao Tingda had proved it through practice, and it could be easily digged out without detection.

It is not difficult to dig out the saltpeter mine, but how to keep the miners alive on this land is difficult.

In northern Chile, the desert wilderness is full of gravel and rocks.

The rolled up wind and sand blew over the odd-shaped rocks standing abruptly in the desert, and the swept gravel also hit the figure chiseling out characters with a steel pick under the strange rocks. It was a young man in a linen robe and a bamboo hat, holding an axe. Hammer's right hand has a callus on the tiger's mouth, and there is a road under his feet, extending from the edge of the strange rock to the north and south until it disappears in the red phantom of the rising heat in the distance.

The rough road is so wide that eight horses can run side by side. The cracked soil on the road can fill up the cracks with a gust of sand blowing. There is no difference between the inside and the outside of the road. Stones are piled up to form a foot-high stone platform, and signs are piled up along the road.

There are often subtle crackling sounds in the desert. It is the sound of salt pool particles bouncing in the scorching heat in the distance. Carefully took two sips in his mouth, relieved the dryness in his throat that was about to smoke, squinted at the sun with a scarred face when he looked up, took out a copper pocket watch from his wide belt, and looked at the time.

Near noon.

The impatience on his face faded quickly, and he slowly squatted down with joy, letting the shadow cast by the bamboo hat cover his strong body as much as possible, turning his eyes to the end of the road in the south, and waiting quietly.

On the huge strange rock behind the young man, the words "Dazhili Nitrate Mine [-] Factory" were chiseled out by a pickaxe. The last two characters have not yet been chiseled out. This is his job today.

He is from Liaodong and his name is Li Ning. Jiangyang's bandit was born with extraordinary spear skills. Two years ago, he worked incognito as a servant at Li Chengliang's place, but because he couldn't speak well, he was sent to Beiyang to serve as a banner army.

Shao Tingdabiao, the former military governor of the Dongyang Army Mansion, is now serving as the general banner, and he is ordered to stay in the desert with hundreds of households. Six months ago, they found that this place has all the conditions for opening a saltpeter mine. After several times of site selection and exploration, they finally chose As a mine here, just behind the towering broken mountain wall not far to the north of the strange rock he chiseled, is the site of the No. [-] Nitrate Mine Factory.

The site selection here has nothing to do with the nitrate mine, but mainly depends on the distance with the aboriginal tribes who have lived in the desert for generations, because it is related to water collection.

Just like people follow camels when they get lost in the desert, camels may not know the way, but they know where there are minerals and oases. Where there is a small oasis, there is water.

Initially, the site of several nitrate mines was set up close to the coast, and it was easy to get water and various living materials. However, the later the plant sites were established, the deeper the water source was, the more difficult it was to obtain. Similarly, the quality of excavated nitrate mines was also better. , the better the nitrate, the easier it is to decoct, the less impurities the finished product has, and the more powerful it is to make gunpowder.

The [-]th factory where Li Ning is located can only be said to be in good condition, and it is by no means a good place. The nearest aboriginal tribe lives on the mountain [-] miles away. water for life.

Shuishan Hundred Households were stationed there, and the Banner Army recruited local people to weave hundreds of larger nets with cotton cloth to build a water shed, to fetch clean water at night and send it to the mine during the day.

The source of joy in Li Ning’s eyes and the purpose of waiting are just like this. Every day when the sun rises, the Banner Army of Shuishan Baihusuo will send a horse team to distribute the water to the three nearby nitrate mines. The local people will throw the stones picked up on the mountain and on the road by the side of the road.

The Ming army had no spare time to build roads when they entered the desert. The so-called roads were just like this. The people and horses found a relatively flat road in the wilderness while marching, trying to make it as short as possible between the starting point and the destination, and then scattered stones on the side of the road. Over time, it becomes a road.

In such a road condition, it takes one and a half hours for the horse-drawn carriage of Shuishan Baihusuo to travel from departure to arrival, and it is difficult to travel under the scorching heat. There are 35 barrels of water, 73 liters per barrel, and [-] milliliters per liter.

There are more than 35 members of the flag army, gunpowder craftsmen, native miners and their families, and more than 120 large and small animals. [-] barrels of water are not enough for drinking, let alone bathing, let alone [-] mu of land.

Both the Qijun and the gunpowder craftsmen are genuine Ming people. The gunpowder craftsman is not bad, he is busy decocting the nitrate dug out by the miners all day long, but the warriors like Qijun are really idle. Animals are not willing to stay longer, and if they want to hunt, they have to go to the mountains for dozens of miles to catch big rabbits.

It was a strange thing, bigger than Daming's rabbit, and slept in the sun with its head buried in a rock during the day, even if it was woken up, it would droop its eyes as if it couldn't wake up, and it would fall asleep at night. With a unique spirit, running around the mountain is like celebrating the New Year.

But Li Ning, the general flag, felt that the rabbits should not run around during the Chinese New Year, but should be cooked.

The people of Daming, who are serious and honest, have nothing to fight and nothing to do in this barren desert, so they must plan to grow and order vegetables.

Planting vegetables in Kepei requires water, but they don’t have enough water to drink, so where should it come from?
Forty miles to the north, there are intermittent hot springs; thirty miles to the northeast, there is a salt lake.

People and dogs can't drink that water, even if it's distilled. Just like sea water, it's useless to quench thirst. Basically, none of them, the Northern Banner Army, doesn't drink distilled water at sea. They all know that there are more people drinking steamed sea water. Hair loss Dogs shed hair.

But it can be used for bathing, decocting nitrate, and mixed with mountains and rivers to drink. It has relatively less nutrition, but it will not cause hair loss, and it can also quench thirst.

Li Ning shook the empty water bag. This Eastern Army Mansion is really not as comfortable as the Liaodong Army. Over there, everything is tight to the generals and servants. It is good here. Baihu, General Banner, Small Banner, Banner Army, don’t worry. When it comes to what to eat and what to use, even the amount of water to drink every day is strictly regulated. The flag army has one liter of purified water and three liters of distilled water, and the general flag is only [-]% more than the flag army.

Other than that, not a single drop.

But it is also because of this that water is especially precious when it is delivered.

There were a few shouts from the ridge in the distance, the flag soldiers on duty held up the red flag and stood waving on the edge of the cliff, the sound of the horse's bell was dangling from the official road, Li Ning also lowered his eyes like a big rabbit on this land Looking around, in the phantom of the rising heat, Shuishan's carriage came.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)