Chapter 34 Salt Field (1)

"Let's take a look at the map first. This will probably help you understand today's mission." Gu Kai took out his notebook from his backpack, opened it and called up a satellite image.

On this picture, you can clearly see the entire bay from Luhuitoujiao in the west to Yinggebi in the east. Gu Kai first pointed to the location of Victory Harbor: "We are here."

Then he moved his finger down and pointed to another place: "The place we are going to today is here."

"It's very close here. Why is it so mysterious?" Wang Tom looked at the place he pointed at and estimated the approximate distance. The straight-line distance from Victory Port should be less than five thousand meters. Although it takes a detour to get there from the sea,

Yes, but the distance will not exceed 4 nautical miles.

"It's very close. The problem is that we don't have enough power to set up defenses there at the moment." Gu Kai shrugged and said, "But the executive committee has a strong will to develop there, so we must be the vanguard to go on-site to inspect it.

Is the place worthy of adventure?”

The location pointed out by Gu Kai is located on the east side of the bay, a small sea-facing plain surrounded by Mengguoling, Baishiling and Liupanling on three sides. From satellite images, it can be estimated that the area is only a little over one square kilometer at most.

, less than 2,000 acres of land. Judging from the satellite images, this area seems to have been well developed in later generations. A large freight terminal was built, and there was even a road tunnel that penetrated Meng Guoling to the north.

One end passes through the cultivated land currently developed in the labor camp on the east bank of the Tiandu River, allowing this dead land surrounded by mountains on three sides to have a direct land route to the interior of the Tiandu River Valley. Of course, such a large-scale project of tunneling through the mountains is impossible in this era.

Implementation, and the development value of this dead land, the North American gang really can't find any clue from the map.

Due to manpower limitations, the farthest land outpost under the Military Police Department is currently only located at Yulinjiao, which is very close to the seaside area. However, if anything happens there, the sentinels at Yulinjiao can

All we can do is face each other across the sea. If the executive committee wants to develop that place, I'm afraid it will only exist as an "enclave" outside its control for a period of time in the future.

Gu Kai seemed to also see the confusion on everyone's faces, closed his notebook and said: "It's useless to talk more. You should understand it if you go and see it on the spot."

After making the decision, everyone in North America split up. Wang Tom opened the bottom compartment of the "Speed" and took out guns from the arsenal and distributed them to everyone. Then Qiao Zhiya, Roger, and Shi Diwen went to the "Lightning". Everyone went to the "Lightning".

After performing their duties, they unmoored and raised the sail. A few minutes later, the two sailboats left the pier one after the other and headed straight south.

When driving through Yulinjiao, Wang Tom specifically pointed out the location of the outpost to Gu Kai. The current combat readiness duty is three people per shift, an eight-hour shift system, and the shift changes every two days to ensure 24-hour uninterrupted monitoring.

Situation near the bay.

After listening to the introduction, Gu Kai asked: "Isn't it too early to implement 24-hour monitoring now? We have been here for more than half a month, and apart from local fishermen, we have never seen any other boats nearby."

Tom Wang shook his head and said: "Be prepared. We believe that there will be a small group of pirates nearby before this summer, and sooner or later there will be a battle. Unfortunately, we lack heavy weapons now. Otherwise, if we put a fort on both sides of the harbor, it would be really dangerous.

Nothing is lost.”

Gu Kai patted Tom Wang on the shoulder and said, "You guys are not honest! I heard that when you were buying guns in Eastern Europe, you also bought a few big ones."

"What a big guy!" Wang Tom explained in a dumbfounded way: "It's just two PP89 60mm mortars exported from China. It's not a big guy at all. The old guy is really real."

"A 60mm cannon is still a cannon! Don't mistake the village chief for a cadre!" Gu Kai criticized Wang Tom in a serious manner, but immediately exposed his military illiteracy: "I have two cannons in my hand.

It shouldn’t be a big problem to defend a port and get a ship, right?”

"Kevin, mortars are mainly used to hit fixed targets. The shells shoot in high parabolic curves. It is very difficult to hit moving targets." Wang Tom gave Gu Kai some knowledge and sighed: "

Even if they could be fired, we would not dare to use these two cannons casually. Because our ship could no longer carry more supplies at that time. In order to free up weight to install these two cannons, we even dismantled the bathtub on the ship. In the end

I only bought twenty rounds of artillery shells. After shooting these twenty rounds, these two cannons will have no choice but to be sent to the military museum as exhibits in the future."

"These few rounds of artillery shells are not even enough for artillery training, right?" No matter how illiterate Gu Kai was in the military, he had already thought of the disadvantages of too few artillery shell reserves.

Wang Tom nodded and said: "So these two cannons are mostly used as decorations right now. I think it will take at least some time until the Tiandu Iron Mine is put into production before the Military and Police Department can hope to start forming its own artillery force. And after

For a period of time after that, our artillery units will probably have to use old-fashioned front-loading smoothbore cannons to practice."

During the chat, the boat has sailed into the small bay where the destination is located. You can see the dense mangroves on the shore extending to the left and right along the coastline. Just looking at it from the perspective of the boat, it is almost difficult to imagine that in this dense mangrove forest

There is also a plain area hidden behind.

Wang Tom ordered the ship to lower half the sail and let the ship move slowly along the coastline in order to find a suitable place to dock. However, Gu Kai, who was holding a telescope, seemed to have found the target. He pointed to the shore ahead and said: "See what's going on there?"

Is it at the mouth of the river?"

Wang Tom looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, a five or six meter wide estuary was faintly visible in the mangroves, but it was easily overlooked due to the topography.

"We will disembark there and go upstream along this waterway." Gu Kai said firmly.

With the wide hulls of the "Speed" and "Lightning", there is no way to sail into this narrow waterway. The two boats can only be parked side by side outside the river mouth. The "Speed" is equipped with an inflatable rubber kayak.

The sailors spent ten minutes installing the assault boat, then loaded up their luggage and firearms and descended from the stern gangway to the assault boat. Johnson stayed alone on the boat as a warning.

This four-meter-long rubber assault boat has only been used once when landing in Port Victory. It can carry eight people and is equipped with a two-stroke 18-horsepower outboard engine. It is most suitable for exploring such narrow waterways.

Wang Tom checked that the military radio he carried was normal, and then signaled to set off immediately. As the roar of the motor sounded, the assault boat carried a group of six people including Gu Kai and slowly sailed upstream of the waterway.

After walking along the waterway for two or three minutes, several people on the assault boat who had been watching both sides of the bank realized that something was wrong - there were obvious traces of man-made water diversion projects here, and there were many artificially excavated ditches on both sides of the waterway.

It looks like it has been wasted for quite some time.

And Tom Wang noticed another detail: "The water doesn't seem to be flowing at all... Is this sea water poured in?"

Gu Kai nodded when he heard this: "This waterway is indeed sea water, and the places we see now were all salt fields in the past."

"A long time ago? When was that?" Wang Tom, who was not familiar with Chinese history, was immediately confused.

"Hmm...probably from the Southern Song Dynasty..." Gu Kai, who had also heard about it, made a fool of himself with some guilt, and quickly changed the subject: "Anyway, someone has built a salt farm here before, and the executive committee believes that there is a certain amount of development here.

The basics can save a lot of work by re-developing it.”

"What do you mean, use this area to introduce seawater and use the sun salt method to produce large-scale salt?" Wang Tom, who had little knowledge of such professional issues, asked tentatively.

"I think Qiao Zhiya should know something. After all, he is from the chemical industry." Of course, Gu Kai couldn't explain this kind of question that was far away from his major, so he could only leave it to others.

So Wang Tom repeated the question to Qiao Zhiya in English. Qiao Zhiya thought for a while before replying: "There is no doubt that in addition to eating, salt is also a very important raw material in the chemical industry. We will make chlorine in the future.

Sodium metal, soda ash, heavy alkali, caustic soda, and hydrochloric acid must all use salt. The basis of the chemical industry is three acids and two alkali, and salt is the basis of this foundation..."

"Can you say something I can understand?" Gu Kai interrupted impatiently. As a lawyer who deals with legal provisions all day long, how could he possibly understand what those damn acids and alkalis are?

"Okay, let me put it into practice." Qiao Zhiya reluctantly changed his way to popularize science to his companions: "For example, glass, dyes, explosives, metallurgy, fertilizers, papermaking, printing... almost everything we can think of is related to the chemical industry.

All walks of life are inseparable from salt."

"Machining is also inseparable from salt." Roger added: "Salt must be used in casting, heat treatment and electroplating."

"Let me sum it up, that is to say, if we want to copy the industrial system of later generations in the seventeenth century, salt production is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed, right?" Wang Tom finally clarified it with the explanation of professionals.

Got some clues.

"That's right. People in this era only use salt for eating, and our advantage lies in the fact that we can process salt into a variety of things, and these things are enough for us to conquer the entire earth!" Qiao Zhiya said

As he spoke, his warlike heart was revealed again.

Wang Tom automatically filtered out Qiao Zhiya's arrogance and asked Gu Kai: "So the executive committee has made up its mind to develop salt fields here?"

Gu Kai nodded: "In the timetable of the executive committee, the metallurgy and chemical industries of the industrial port must be launched simultaneously, and no matter which leg is lame, it will not work. At present, Tiandu Iron Mine has begun pre-mining, and chemical projects must also be launched.

Spread it out as soon as possible,"

"Okay, since it's so important, let's take a closer look at this place." Wang Tom spotted a relatively flat shore in front of him, turned off the motor and slowly moved the assault boat over.

Everyone filed down to the shore, tied the assault boat to a tree trunk on the shore with a cable, then picked up their equipment and headed inland.
Chapter completed!