Lu Ming

Chapter 219 Road Repair and Slaves

In the first well in Taiwan during the Xianfeng period, the "pit master" of the Ming Dynasty only dug down to a depth of more than 3 meters and began to produce oil, with a daily output of 40 kilograms.

Although the specific location of that well has long been lost in the long river of history, it may not be the well under Pan Mingzhong's feet, but it doesn't matter: it is in the same oil producing belt, and there is oil sand seeping out of the ground. It can dig out oil.

Facts have proved that 3 meters is the critical point of the pressure of the oil layer: more than two hours later, as an excavation team shouted in surprise from the bottom of the pit, everyone rushed to the edge of the pit to take a look, and a fist-sized black The liquid is pouring out from the bottom of the pit.

From the beginning of Tangzhuang's decision to the unearthing of the black gold today, it took a full year and a month for the traveler to finally make their dream come true.

And when Ning Wei probed to see this scene, he hurriedly threw down a few folding canvas buckets: "Shengman, Shengman, pull it up."

Pan Mingzhong, leaning on his knees with his hands and looking down with his buttocks pouted, couldn't stop smiling at this moment, and burst out laughing.

The natives did not understand why the outsiders laughed.In their view, black oil is not a good thing.This kind of earth pit with black water will seep out from different places every few years, and sometimes it will gather into a small oil pit, which smells bad, and animals and plants will stay away from this place. Going around: they always feel that this is an ominous thing.

But today is different.Today, this dense forest is full of outsiders shouting happily. The natives first watched in confusion as they filled more than a dozen cloth buckets with viscous oil, and then these people performed strange worship rituals: group photo .

As a result, the historic scene of a group of primitive people with bare birds and carrying spears and the exploration team surrounding the black oil pit was frozen on the photo after a few "clicks".

After taking the photo, the partner will be disbanded, which is the same as the graduation photo.

However, when Pan Mingzhong saw Ning Wei commanding everyone to pack up and leave quickly, he was still a little puzzled: "Let's go now?"

"Ah, why not spend the night here?"

"I mean there shouldn't be any more exploration and exploration. It feels a bit sloppy to test something?"

"Bullshit, the samples are already there, and the coordinates are recorded. What else is there to explore? Go home as soon as possible. Look at this damn place, you can't see the sun from the top, and you can't see the foot of the mountain from the bottom. You can't stay longer, it's murderous."

"Then what should we do next? Put in equipment to drill and extract oil?"

With a "puchi", Ning Wei finally burst out laughing.

While directing the team members and the natives to pick up the oil barrels and go down the mountain, Ning Wei preached to Pan Mingzhong: "Don't do anything next, call the contractor first."

"Contractor?"

"Well, Chen Dong's group of infrastructure construction workers come here at random." Ning Wei turned his head and said to Pan Mingzhong seriously: "If you want to get rich, don't you understand that you need to build roads first? If you want to produce oil, you should also build roads first. Others Don't even think about it."

"I'll go." Pan Mingzhong was a little depressed when he heard this: "There is a straight-line distance of 1.8 kilometers from the camp. If the road is built, there will probably be a little more detour, which is troublesome enough."

"Didn't you read the information before you came? The Japanese also built stone roads back then, and then relied on cable cars and cableways to transport oil down the mountain." Ning Wei sighed: "We are not as good as the Japanese, I guess The pavement was repaired in the early stage, and then you have to rely on your shoulders to pick it up."

"Can't we install a pipeline to transport oil directly down the mountain?"

After hearing such idiotic words, Ning Wei was forced to roll his eyes, and then stretched out a finger: "First, look at the products in the kiln area that are attacking water valves, and they seem to be able to produce oil pipelines and pressure valves. ?"

"Secondly, if the oil pipeline is to be launched, then the annual output of the oil field must be at least [-] tons, right? Don't you think our [-]-ton nano-oil field is a little bit of a pipeline."

When Ning Wei said this, he pinched the tip of his little finger with his thumb and made a "little shrimp" gesture.

"I understand, I understand. This is a primitive workshop, and it cannot be put on the stage." Pan Mingzhong understood now.

"In fact, the Japanese also repaired pipelines in the later stage, but at that time the well depth was less than 500 meters, and the annual output also reached [-] tons."

When Ning Wei said this, he showed a sighing expression: "We don't need to be so hard, because the whole world is in our hands. As long as our oil consumption can reach the kiloton level, then we can drive an ironclad ship to Borneo to dig Isn’t high-quality light oil bad? Who’s going to dig oil here, it’s too inefficient.”

"It seems reasonable."

"So, you don't need to set up a big stall here, and you can just hang around for two years. Later, when the big troops come, I will dig a few more [-]-meter wells, and the output will be enough for the gang in the kiln area."

".You told me that I lost all passion."

"What passion do you need as a prospector?"

"Then you don't seem to have any passion for oil?"

"Nonsense, if you are passionate, you must ejaculate. Look at the well today, does it look like it is ejaculating?"

"."

Accompanied by the chatter between the two, the cheerful "Tuyang Joint Mine Exploration Team" began to return home.Not long after, the radio waves launched from the Yuandou quickly attracted the attention of the senior staff—even during the preparation period when the battle clouds were densely covered, the news of the discovery of oil still hit the G-spot of most of the traversing people, so The Grand Office immediately dispatched a second reinforcement ship.

This time, not only infrastructure workers, but also a key person: the contractor came with the boat.As an authoritative person in infrastructure, a certain person wearing gold-rimmed glasses came to Miao Su in person two days later: Feng Guanjie.

Feng Guanjie's arrival directly caused a change in Miao Su's current situation: Pan Mingzhong and Lei Jian, including their exploration team and Yuandou Hao, retired after successful completion, and returned immediately to be appointed as senior officers.

As soon as Feng Guanjie landed, he served as the mayor of the oilfield town, and the deputy commander-in-chief of the takeaway oilfield construction headquarters - Ning Wei was the commander-in-chief.

Things quickly got on the right track with Feng Guanjie's arrival.On the second day after he arrived in Miaosu, 150 construction workers started to expand the camp.After the expansion of the camp is completed, these people will work with the natives who have reached an agreement to cut down the forest, and build a dirt road leading directly to the oil well according to the drawings given by Feng Guanjie after field exploration.

And Ning Wei, who had nothing to do for the time being, became the security captain.

His daily task now is to lead 50 soldiers to patrol and resolve disputes-more and more boats on Houlongxi have attracted the aboriginals from other nearby villages.Ning Wei now not only has to prevent the fighters from the Land Snake Head Court from fighting with each other, he is also responsible for arranging deals and negotiating with the new natives on the issue of hiring labor.

After Feng Guanjie settled the temporary camp and the dirt road, he quickly planned the design of the oil production town - the location was very clear, and it overlapped with the town on the map of later generations.

In order to make it easier to stop the ship, the Yuandou chose a small river bend in the south as its foothold.In fact, it is not the best place to set up camp: there is a tributary flowing into the Houlong River on the hill towards the oil well, and the estuary where this stream meets the Houlong River is the most suitable place for civil construction.

Of course, this small estuary plain in the 17th century is still under the control of dense vegetation, continuous puddles, terrifying leeches and mosquito legions: this is why some people dare not park their boats there.The oil town that appeared on the map in later generations needed to be developed in the 17th century.

"Come with 200 cannon fodder first." After surveying the small estuary plain with an area of ​​less than 100 mu, Feng Guanjie sent a telegram to the officers concisely.As his words fell to the ground, the officials who were extremely eager for oil unexpectedly did not bargain, but without hesitation sent 200 extremely precious cannon fodder - Javanese.

As soon as these 200 slaves arrived in Miaosu, they were sent to the most dangerous estuary area to clean up the vegetation, puddles, leeches and mosquitoes there.
In fact, the working environment these slaves are facing at the moment is already quite good.Because two days before their arrival, a rumbling sand boat had already stopped at the mouth of the river.The vegetation on this small plain was bulldozed by people wearing full-body protective suits with chainsaws and shovels.

Therefore, what the slaves have to do now is to burn them first.When a large number of plants were lit, the slaves had to take advantage of the opportunity of the mosquitoes being smoked away to quickly fill up all the puddles and raise the foundation: it is the rainy season, and the future town needs to raise the foundation a bit.

This is how the hard pioneering work began.

The 200 slaves were quickly consumed in brutal conditions.After the estuary is settled, they will continue to clean up the river banks upstream and downstream, and eliminate all mosquitoes and leeches-this work will continue until they are all dead.

So, to be honest, the big office paid a lot of money for this oil field reclamation: 200 Javanese slaves who could not live for half a year cost 5 taels of silver, which is really not cheap.

As for the origin of these new slaves
Let us turn back the time to the second day when the Yuandou set off to Miaosu to search for oil.

In fact, on the evening of the day after the departure of the Yuandou, the screen of the radar station installed in the southeast corner of the Dayuan Commercial Building showed a fleet of ships coming from the southwest.

Because someone who can travel through space is unwilling to take too much risk, the radars used by the travel forces are all civilian versions.In this way, the detection distance will naturally have a big gap with the military version: only less than 100 kilometers.

Fortunately, it is the 17th century, and the warning range of 100 kilometers is enough.

So when the officer learned that there was a fleet of no less than 15 ships coming from the south, he immediately sent two destroyers who were resting to go to sea to find out.

The news came back quickly by telegram.The flag of the opposing fleet is the VOC flag - the Dutch.

(End of this chapter)