Chapter 1924
In fact, the thirty or so armed riders outside the convoy were just the local garrison and Luo Shengdong's personal guard. The two caravans at the end of the convoy also carried Gai Liangcai's men. Taken together, the number of these teams is no less than the number of people on guard duty inside and outside the Guest House last night. In terms of the number of participants in the operation, the security level is almost the same as that of a high-ranking official from Haihan.
Because Yinggehai is rich in salt, salt merchants from various countries often come and go. In order to ensure the personal safety of these wealthy people in the local area, relatively strict security measures are in place in prosperous areas such as ports and county towns. In the past, there were people who tried to use extraordinary means to get some money out of these wealthy businessmen. However, Luo Shengdong was originally a warrior and had a ruthless side. For him, these people who wanted to cause trouble in the local area were a stumbling block. , the fate of those who were caught was relatively miserable. They were basically paraded in the streets and sent to the Shilu Mine to work as coolies. It would be difficult for them to leave that place again in their lifetime.
It was actually not the first time for Luo Shengdong to provide security for foreign dignitaries who came to inspect, and there had never been any mistakes before, so he was very confident in the measures he had deployed. He didn't think there was any problem with Gai Liangcai's command. He was just a local official and he just had to cooperate with the other party in the past two days.
As for the two carriages parked on the main road, they didn't attract anyone's attention at all. Almost all of the seven local horse-drawn carriages in Yinggehai use this standard horse-drawn carriage designed by the Ministry of Transportation and built in large numbers in various places in recent years. At least more than a hundred such horse-drawn carriages shuttle back and forth on this main road every day. In order to facilitate salt merchants to carry out trading activities, the salt field is actually a relatively open area and does not have special checkpoints like Tiandu Industrial Zone in Sanya. Even foreign businessmen can enter and leave this area, and the most convenient means of transportation is horse-drawn carriages.
Of course, in areas where the products are relatively special, such as refined salt that requires multiple refining and processing times in the production process and has a high market price, the production sites will still refuse entry to outsiders for the sake of technical confidentiality.
The two carriages parked on the roadside did not move at all. It was not until this large official motorcade passed by and almost disappeared from the end of the field of vision that Captain Xue gave an order in the car: "Follow behind, don't get too close. Keep your distance!”
There is a short blunderbuss about a foot long stuck in his waist. This fire blunderbuss is said to be made in Spain. It can shoot through iron armor within three feet. It is really powerful. However, the slightly troublesome thing is that the accuracy of this thing is limited. You need to be very close to the target when doing it. If the distance is more than five feet, you can basically just hit by chance.
Apart from this firecracker, the other weapons in the group only had a variety of cold weapons, and they were all short and capable. There were no long-handled weapons or heavy weapons that were inconvenient to carry. To be honest, Captain Xue has no idea about this mission. He just saw from the gap in the car hood that all the guards of the convoy are carrying rifles. If he does this, his group will not even be able to receive a salvo from the opposite side. All folded.
Just because he was aware of the huge gap in strength, he did not dare to issue radical orders at this time. If their whereabouts were exposed, he did not dare to expect that the group of people he led could escape from the sight of dozens of cavalry.
The only good thing is that there is only one main road here, and all the cars and horses coming and going take this road. Their two cars are hanging far behind, so they don't look obtrusive, and the terrain here is flat, so Almost everything you see is large and small salt fields, and there are no obstacles blocking your field of vision, so it is not easy to lose track of the target.
After leaving the county town for about three or four miles, the official convoy turned onto a branch road leading to a village in the bay. There are still a few riders left at the intersection, probably to guard the intersection and prevent other horses and horses from entering, so as not to block this slightly narrower branch road.
"Keep going, don't stop!"
Captain Xue seemed quite experienced in tracking and tracking, and immediately issued new instructions after discovering the movement ahead. If you stop at this time, it will easily arouse the vigilance of the guards ahead. If you actively surpass the opponent's position, you will actually enter the psychological blind spot where the opponent is alert, making it easier to hide your intentions.
After crossing the branch road, the two carriages continued forward for nearly a mile before pulling over again. Captain Xue fumbled and took out a monocular telescope, watching the movements of the official convoy in the distance through the gap in the car hood.
In fact, so far, he is still unable to determine whether the protagonist of that convoy is the North Korean who arrived here yesterday. He is entirely inferring based on this level of protection. After all, in addition to the Koreans, I heard that there were also a group of Haihan officials accompanying them. It was also a reasonable arrangement for a large number of local armed personnel to be escorted. But in this case, such a strict level of protection is not something that these people can easily challenge.
This is actually because the matter happened in such a hurry that there was no time to make thorough preparations. It was just reported that the crown prince of Joseon was preparing to leave Sanya for an inspection, and then he received the news that he would set out from Victory Port the next day. In such a short period of time, Captain Xue The forces behind it want to organize a group of people in Sanya to follow them and look for opportunities to attack the Koreans. The difficulty can be imagined.
Although he temporarily built a boat and organized a group of desperadoes, even Captain Xue, who took the lead, was not sure about this mission. He didn't even know when and where to start. He could only take one step and see. step.
When they came out of Victory Port, they could barely keep up with the Korean fleet, but when they approached Yacheng, the fleet in front suddenly increased their speed, and their ship was pulled down. Hurrying slowly, we finally arrived at Yinggehai at dusk. In fact, they didn't know whether the North Korean fleet would dock here. They didn't feel at ease until they saw the two ships at the port. However, this group of people were not familiar with Yinggehai's life and place, so they couldn't find it in a hurry. If you can't reach your target, you can only settle for the next best thing and wait for the target to appear.
Fortunately, although Yinggehai is a large place, its geographical environment is simple. As long as you guard the main road out of the county, you will basically not miss your target. But the current problem is that the security measures taken by Haihan are extremely strict, and Captain Xue can't find any chance to take action at the moment. He understood that if he continued to attack rashly under such circumstances, it would be the same as risking death, and it would be impossible to succeed at all. We can only wait patiently to see if things will turn around. At this time, Li Bo and his party did not realize that there was a crisis lurking nearby, and were visiting a local model salt farm under the leadership of Luo Shengdong.
"This is one of the earliest salt fields developed in Yinggehai, and it is also the first local salt field to implement mechanized irrigation!" Luo Shengdong proudly introduced the local achievements in salt field construction to Li Bo: "Your Majesty, please look at our salt field. This kind of steam engine-driven irrigation device is used to pour seawater into the salt pond, which is much more efficient than the previous manual method. Come on, let me demonstrate it to the prince!"
Li Bo is no longer unfamiliar with steam engines. After going to the Sanya Municipal Library to refresh his knowledge, he even had a general understanding of the operating principles of this strange mechanical device. But it still feels very mysterious that this thing can convert the thermal energy of coal combustion into seemingly endless kinetic energy. The Haihan people are obviously experts in using this kind of mechanical devices. Whether it is sailing ships, trains, or the devices currently used to lift and fill seawater, they all use steam engines as the source of power.
Watching seawater being quickly poured into the empty salt pond through the lifting and irrigation device, there is no doubt that this is much smarter than the traditional lifting irrigation method of pedaling water trucks, and the efficiency is even different. As long as there is coal and fresh water, this steam engine can run seemingly endlessly, but humans and animals do not have such long-lasting physical strength.
But Li Bo also thought of another problem. Haihan's extensive use of steam engines actually reflects the serious shortage of labor in this country to a certain extent, forcing them to use this seemingly complicated mechanical device to replace Human and animal power. Although this thing is highly efficient, considering the cost and consumption during use, as well as the need for dedicated maintenance, its use cost may not be cheaper than human and animal power.
And this is exactly the case. Even if the Executive Committee is bent on promoting rapid industrialization, the manufacturing capacity of steam engines is still slowly improving due to the lack of professional labor. The resulting high cost of use cannot be overcome for the time being. Even in salt farms that claim to have no worries about money, mechanical lifting and irrigation devices like this are not deployed on a large scale. The reasons are on the one hand cost issues, and on the other hand the production capacity of steam engines cannot keep up with demand.
The executive committee wants to promote the use of steam engines in the industrial field, but at the same time ensure that the production technology is not leaked as much as possible, so that Haihan's technical advantages in this field can last longer. As a result, both the production of steam engines and the training of related professionals must be controlled by the authorities, and their development speed will inevitably be limited. In the past two years, academies in Danzhou wanted to cultivate professionals in this field on their own. Zhang Jinbao from Qiongxi Academy even recruited a group of people to conduct research in secret, but in the end they were stopped by the authorities and asked to cooperate with official arrangements.
Therefore, although Haihan's steam engine manufacturing and application technology is unique in this era, the speed of its large-scale promotion and application is actually not very ideal. Even salt farms with better economic conditions can still only use this advanced device as one of the selling points to show off to visitors, rather than as a truly popular production tool.
Of course, only a few Haihan executives know this kind of thing. In fact, even middle-level officials like Luo Shengdong are still sincerely proud of these black technologies. After all, this thing is unique to Haihan, and other countries cannot copy it even if they copy it. So when he introduced it to Li Bo, his sense of pride was not pretending, but truly coming from his heart.
However, the process of Haihan-style salt production is not as simple as pumping seawater up and into the salt pond and then waiting to dry it. In fact, the tide water in the bay must first be brought into the tide storage pool, because the tide water is collected from the tide. The seawater obtained has a higher salt concentration and is easier to produce salt.
The Yinggehai Salt Farm will select low-lying areas in the bay tidal flat area to build a tide storage reservoir. When the tide rises, the gates will be opened to naturally absorb the tide water, and the gates will be closed when the tide falls. The function of the steam lifting and irrigation device is to pour seawater into the tide storage in areas where the terrain conditions do not allow the tide to flow in by itself, or to lift the seawater in the tide storage into the salt fields.
The construction of these salt pans is not simple. It requires first turning the soil, drying, soaking in brine, repeated compaction and other processes. According to different functions, it is divided into evaporation area, adjustment area and crystallization area. The final crystallization pond even needs to use Brick or concrete structures to prevent leaks.
This production process seems simple, but in fact, each production link has corresponding technical standards. For example, the standardization of crystallization concentration is the unique setting of the Haihan salt production method.
During the years when Luo Shengdong was a private salt dealer, he had to go in and out of Haihan's two salt fields near Victory Port several times every month, and he gradually mastered these techniques. And later he also studied theoretical knowledge for a period of time with Anxi, the director of the salt industry, and he could be regarded as a semi-technical official. Therefore, when introducing the sea salt production process to everyone, I can really do it as smoothly as if I were familiar with it, and I can explain all the details in detail.
After listening to it for a while, Li Shu started to admire Luo Shengdong. It was obvious that this guy was not just a wasted person. He was really capable of sitting in this position. He knew all the technical details of the salt production process. In addition, he has been in the private salt business for several years. People working under him must not dare to play any tricks to deceive him. Haihan chose such a person to take care of the largest salt-producing area under his control. He must also have taken a fancy to Luo Shengdong's ability in the professional field.
But to be honest, Li Bo could only understand about half of the production details introduced by Luo Shengdong, and what he could really understand was maybe one or two sentences out of ten. This reminded him of what Li Xi had said to him when discussing the study abroad major before. It wasn't that Haihan didn't want to teach some things, or that other countries didn't want to learn them, but that the overseas study personnel sent there simply couldn't understand them. Courses can only be learned bit by bit from the most basic subjects. Similar to some more advanced knowledge, the learning time may even take ten years, and few people are willing to spend such a long time studying abroad. After all, those who come to study abroad come to learn the subject as soon as possible and return to their country to become officials. They have to work in Haihan. If you have been a student for so long, you might as well just become a naturalized student.
(End of chapter)