Great time travel

Chapter 187, Nansha Journey
Xu Xiake, the famous No. [-] donkey in the late Ming Dynasty, although he was not afraid of hardships and dangers, had amazing perseverance, and endured hardships and hardships, he was not a successful leader, but a very self-centered cheapskate.The various faults of the gentry and officials in the late Ming Dynasty also more or less exist in Xu Xiake.What is especially worthy of criticism is that he treats servants very harshly, and also likes to take advantage of various petty advantages.

If Xu Xiake were to lead an expedition like Columbus or Pizarro, it is estimated that there would be a rebellion on the way.

For example, Xu Xiake is not an official, and originally had no right to use the public post system.But once, he still got a horse card through his relationship, that is, using the letter of proof from Yichuan.So Xu Xiake took this horse card along the way, pretending to be a tiger, and enlisted the villagers to carry the sedan chair for him free of charge.If the burden of luggage is added, it will take seven or eight coolies.Because of the lack of manpower, he also used "two women on behalf of his father", that is, asked women to carry the sedan chair for him.

Xu Xiake just sat on a sedan chair carried by two women and traveled with peace of mind, without paying a penny.The unbearable coolie began to run away, and in the blink of an eye there was only one person left. Xu Xiake took out the rope, tied up the last coolie and led him away, just like treating a slave.

Next, Xu Xiake's team entered a small village, but the men in the village had already fled in fright (it can be seen that Xu Xiake probably looked like a bandit or a devil in their eyes).Xu Xiake led his servants to search from house to house, and finally found two women, and ordered them to boil water and cook for themselves.He also beat the lame son of the postman with a whip, drove out the postman who had been hiding, and demanded wine, meat and food.After eating and getting into the bed made for him by the old postman and the woman, Xu Xiake ordered them to find the coolies to carry the sedan chair and luggage for him (the original coolies had escaped), and then he lay down to rest.

——Although the officials, gentry and doctors in the late Ming Dynasty basically drove the people to be as shameless as cattle and horses, and generally regarded the people as worthless, Xu Xiake, a geographer, traveler, and writer with a very good public image, did not It's a little regrettable to be able to avoid vulgarity.

In addition to liking to take advantage of the public and lacking compassion for the common people, Xu Xiake is also very stingy and selfish.In Xu Xiake's later years, he once took Monk Jingwen on a trip to the southwest. As a result, Monk Jingwen fell ill halfway and stayed in a temple, while Xu Xiake continued to travel.Monk Jingwen understood this, but hoped that Xu Xiake would leave some money to the young monks in the temple so that they could buy some food.It should be known that friends have a friendship of wealth. Xu Xiake has been friends with Monk Jingwen and his master for decades, but he shirks this request of Monk Jingwen in every possible way, and Monk Jingwen yells at him in anger.And when Xu Xiake came back from a long trip and was about to take away Monk Jingwen, Monk Jingwen had already died of illness in the temple.

Of course, compared with all kinds of bad people in the late Ming Dynasty, although Xu Xiake was petty and selfish, he still had some integrity.Seeing that Monk Jingwen died, Xu Xiake was also very guilty. He not only helped Monk Jingwen deal with the funeral, but also fulfilled his last wish by burying his ashes in Jizu Mountain thousands of miles away.

In short, there is no doubt about the greatness of Xu Xiake, the patriarch of donkeys, but his own character should not be overestimated either.

Closer to home, now Xu Xiake’s "tolerance" for this trip, although the Huameng has arranged transportation and meals, but the six servants Xu Xiake brought with him when he went out, because the promised rewards were not fulfilled, they still ran away two times. personal.And after seeing Xu Xiake's stingy, stingy, bad manners, the travelers suddenly realized: Why did Xu Xiake come to Hainan Island last time, there were only himself and his brother, and there was not even a servant around him? I didn’t bring it—on the one hand, it was to save money, and on the other hand, I learned a lesson from the previous long trips: Xu Xiake had run away from the accompanying servants several times in the past before leaving Zhejiang Province...

——Being Xu Xiake's servant is really not easy.Ordinary people like them don't have Xu Xiake's hobby and deep understanding of travel, and they don't have the poetic feelings of landscape poets, and they don't take travel as their self-proclaimed mission.Being Xu Xiake's servant may only feed his family for three buckets of rice, but the price is being away from his relatives, and he may lose his life at any time.

What's more terrible is that Xu Xiake not only did not understand the hard work of the servants, but also did not correctly understand the gold content of his title of "member of the Writers Association", but really regarded it as another form of "Hanlin Bachelor": Although Xu Xiake understood very well that the Australian and Song courts did not value literature over military affairs, on the contrary, military officials were noble and culturally inferior. He was not only a literati, but also a "lucky" generation. He had no achievements other than a little "holy family", and he had no backing. I don't have any arrogant capital, so I think I'm already "a man with my tail between my legs".But most of the sailors on the comprehensive supply ship Bailu are still very annoyed by this old man who often shouts at them and refuses to give money—who do you think you are?
In addition, because two servants ran away on the way, and there were not enough people to carry the luggage, Xu Xiake actually had the cheek to find Captain Rong Shiqi, hoping that he could make up two servants for himself, and he choked on the spot. Captain Rong Shiqi rolled his eyes, and almost didn't curse out on the spot: What do you think of glorious naval officers and soldiers, you old bastard?Those poor military households in the Ming Dynasty who were like slaves and cattle and horses?
Although he was so choked that he rolled his eyes, Captain Rong Shiqi still pinched his nose to solve this difficulty for him: It is obviously absolutely impossible for the honorable naval officers and soldiers to serve as Xu Xiake's servants, but there happened to be a group of soldiers accompanying the army on board. For reform-through-labour prisoners, it’s not a big deal to assign two of them to Xu Xiake. Anyway, criminals have no human rights... So, Agui and Wang Hu, who were severely beaten and arrested for committing "hooliganism" in Weizhuang, Shaoxing, were raised. In the sweltering and dirty bilge of the Bailu, I changed into clean clothes, and stuffed them under Xu Xiake's hands...

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The warm wind is blowing, the sun is shining brightly, and the emerald green forest is swaying with the wind, and the edges of the leaves reflect the faint golden light, and thousands of leaves are swaying and undulating, like a string of dancing gold threads.The white clouds in the sky flow slowly, and from time to time, a few seabirds pass by together, pass through the mottled shade of trees, and cast into the distant distance.

At the end of the shade of the trees, there is a snow-white sandy beach and the boundless blue sea. The snow-white clouds hanging from the sky extend to the sea. The scenery is really refreshing.Looking back from the beach, you can see all kinds of high and low scattered buildings, hidden in a lush tropical jungle, which look particularly delicate and lovely, like a bonsai standing on the sea.

——This beautiful tropical island is a gift from coral polyps.

Coral polyp, a kind of lower coelenterate, body image only pocket, there are many petal-like tentacles on the side.During high tide or at night, it can change into bright colors and hunt plankton with its tentacles.Humans once collected the branch-like staghorn coral, the beautiful rose coral or the lotus coral as treasures.But in nature, the most abundant are the humble gray reef-building corals.They grow and reproduce in the warm shallow sea, exuding limestone to form their own armor.Generations of coral skeletons stacked into huge pyramids.Over time, after thousands of years, little by little drilled out of the water, forming a reef, and the waves shattered the fragile coral reefs, gradually grinding them into off-white coral sand.

Most of the Nansha Islands are composed of coral reefs, and most of them are atolls surrounded by lagoons under the water surface.The part above the water is very small.Even Taiping Island, the main island of the Nansha Islands, is only one kilometer long and half a kilometer wide in its natural state, with an area of ​​about half a square kilometer and an altitude of just over three meters.Trying to find it in the vast South China Sea, where the sky and water are connected, is like "looking for a needle in the sea".

However, although Taiping Island is small, it is not desolate, and the whole island is densely covered with extremely lush tropical plants.Banana trees and coconut trees can be seen everywhere, and there are many papayas planted along the path paved with gravel. The strong morning glory vines are everywhere, and the lavender flowers bloom, which is extremely beautiful.

Although it looks lush and lush, there is not much real soil on the island. It is all gray-white fine sand and guano soil after the weathering of coral reefs, which is completely unsuitable for planting crops such as rice, wheat and vegetables.Fortunately, the officers and soldiers of the China League Navy in this time and space have the unscientific and excellent weapon [Random Gate], and directly transported thousands of tons of fertile soil from Guangdong to the island, and opened up dozens of acres of land in the middle of the island. , Planting vegetables such as eggplant, pepper, tomato, water spinach, cabbage, potato, etc., not only effectively improved the meals of officers and soldiers, but also supplied fishermen and the navy.

In addition to fruits and vegetables, fresh water supply is also necessary to maintain life on the island.Although there are wells on Taiping Island, the water quality is still salty, so the garrison built a large number of cement cisterns to collect rainwater.In addition, a fresh water manufacturing plant was built to supply clean fresh water for drinking.

Originally, Taiping Island was surrounded by coral reefs. To board the island, one had to venture through the coral surface and explore the deep water channel.Whether this channel can be found is also unknown.Even if this channel is found, larger ships cannot enter it, and can only be transferred by small boats.For this reason, the garrison built a large-scale cement pier on the island, stretching from the height of the beach to the edge of the reef, forming an artificial deep-water port to facilitate the berthing and unloading of large ships. A light narrow-gauge railway has been laid on it, so that human-powered rail vehicles can directly load and unload goods to berthing ships.Right now, the comprehensive supply ship Bailu is docked at this pier, unloading various daily necessities.

Around the wharf, Huameng built lighthouses, meteorological stations, warehouses, radio stations, reservoirs, forts, dormitories, office buildings, playgrounds, and concrete fish-drying flats, etc.In order to defend against typhoons and storm surges, these buildings are all cement structures, but they are painted with bright colors such as yellow, green, red, blue, white, etc., plus paths paved with fine sand and shells, as well as houses between houses. The flower beds form a unique color combination.

At present, the total population of Taiping Island has reached more than [-] people, forming a prosperous town.For a coral island with an area of ​​only half a square kilometer, this figure is staggering.The reason why Huameng is willing to make such a large-scale investment in a small Taiping Island is of course not only because of its geographical location, but more importantly, the only mineral on the island that is worth mining: struvite.

Without the struvite provided by the Nansha and Xisha Islands, the agricultural development of the tropical rainforest of Borneo would have become even more difficult.

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——The tropical rainforest in Borneo, South Seas, seems to have lush vegetation and vitality, but it is actually dangerous for the local residents.Those troubles such as poisonous insects, poisonous snakes and tropical diseases, not to mention for the time being, the extremely poor soil composition in that place is enough to make any farmer scratch his head: because of the amazing rainfall brought by the tropical rainforest climate, the entire Borneo The soil is constantly being overwashed by rainwater year after year, taking away all kinds of soluble nutrients, so that calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and sulfur are all lost, and in some places there is almost no silicon. Now, pitifully, only iron and aluminum are left.Although the sunshine and temperature in the tropics are suitable for plant growth, in such extremely barren tropical rainforest soil, beans that require potassium are often unable to grow, and grains that do not require potassium are basically afraid of soil aluminum. Excessive content of...

Therefore, primitive agriculture in most tropical areas can only adopt nomadic slash-and-burn farming.If you want to run a stable farm in a tropical rainforest area, you need to work hard to solve the problem of poor soil.In Southeast Asia, the land of Java Island has a large amount of natural volcanic ash that can supplement nutrients, so agriculture has been developed since ancient times, and it can be called the crown of the South Sea Islands.The main agricultural areas of Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar are alluvial plains of large rivers, which can obtain nutrients washed down from upstream.But Borneo does not have the conditions of both, so it is extremely difficult to develop.

Therefore, when establishing farms and plantations in the new colonial strongholds of the Chinese League on Borneo, it is necessary to dig more ditches and ponds to allow precipitation to flow away quickly and avoid soaking the soil to reduce nutrient loss.On the other hand, a large amount of fertilizer must be applied to ensure the nutritional conditions of the crops.

Coincidentally, on the only way from China to Borneo, scattered on many coral islands in the South China Sea, there are white bird droppings everywhere, with an average height of about half a meter. Over time, it hardens and becomes rich in phosphorus and potassium The ore—the struvite abundant in the South China Sea Islands not only effectively helped the development of tropical agriculture in the colonial settlements of Borneo, but also quickly brought amazing prosperity and prosperity to these small coral islands.

However, for the inmates of the labor camp who were forced to mine struvite on the coral island, all this only meant an increased workload.

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At this very moment, Agui and Wang Hu, wearing straw sandals and shirtless, are sweating under the scorching sun of the tropical ocean, carrying a sliding pole, and carrying Xu Xiake, who is wearing a big straw hat, around Taiping Island. After wandering around, I finally came to the mine where the labor reform team mined struvite.

Many reform-through-labour prisoners brought from various places are busy on the rocky reef exposed to the scorching sun.They all looked so silent, tired, dead-faced, naked, wearing only shorts, like a herd of wriggling cattle, digging away at the guano stones with simple pickaxes and hammers.After simple selection, the ore is loaded into trolleys, then dumped into the compartments of those rickshaws on the narrow-gauge railway, and finally pulled into the warehouse near the dock.

Under the scorching tropical sun, the sweat of the labor camp prisoners condensed into salt cream on their skin.Due to the limited fresh water on the island, the prisoners in the labor camp can only take a fresh water bath once a week, so they are all covered in dirt, with layers of salt and frost.Seeing Xu Xiake and his group, some reform-through-labour prisoners raised their heads, as if they wanted to take the opportunity to rest for a while, but several guards with swollen faces immediately leaned over and yelled loudly, supervising them to continue working without stopping.A small leader even threatened viciously that if anyone could not complete the prescribed workload before the sun went down, the entire team of reform-through-labour prisoners would go hungry...

Beside the slider on which Xu Xiake was riding, there was a group of new reform-through-labour prisoners who had just been unloaded from the Bailu and were going to be assigned to the struvite mining site on Taiping Island. They were the original traveling companions of Agui and Wang Hu.These ragged men were tied into two strings by chains, and they staggered along the path paved with fine sand. On both sides, there were ferocious vigilante soldiers screaming loudly, driving them forward with sticks and rifle butts from time to time. .

Watching this scene, A Gui and Wang Hu, who were sweating profusely while carrying the sliding pole, felt a chill down their spine and their legs trembled.

"... Did you see that, if my master hadn't taken a fancy to you, you two sinners would have to be like them!"

Xu Xiake's valet fanned his master graciously, and handed over a bunch of pineapple slices that had been cut, peeled and soaked in salt water. Said, "...You guys, don't be ungrateful!"

"...Yes, Master Xu's great kindness and great virtue, I will never forget my nine deaths!" Agui suddenly became excited, and hurriedly responded, even the sliding pole on his shoulders seemed to be not too heavy.But Wang Hu looked back at the empty pier in the distance, and asked hesitantly, "...I tell you, sir, you said you were going to set off again today, but the big iron boat that brought us to the island is no longer there." Now, how can we cross the sea next?"

"...It's okay!" Xu Xiake replied while eating the pineapple in a good mood, "...Let's not take the boat this time, but go from the sky!"

"... from the sky?" For this unimaginable answer, the two country bumpkins, A Gui and Wang Hu, looked at each other for a while, but they were worried that their master would be angry, so they didn't dare to ask any more questions.However, after a while, both of them understood what Xu Xiake meant:
——At dusk, under the reflection of the colorful sunset glow, I saw a cigar-shaped giant rigid airship suddenly passing through the clouds at the edge of the sky, descending slowly from the north over Taiping Island, and casting a cloud of light on the island and the sea. Huge shade.

Next, Agui, Wang Hu and others who were stunned, carried Xu Xiake and his luggage, climbed the rope ladder and boarded this huge airship, leaving the land of Asia and heading for a more wonderful unknown distance... …