Lu Ming

Chapter 98 Basalt

The Yuandou set sail in the evening. After setting off from Da Yuan, it went all the way west and went straight to the Penghu Islands in the middle of the strait.

Right now is the last period when the northeast monsoon is active. In a few days, as the temperature further drops, the northwest monsoon blowing from Siberia will gradually dominate the wind direction along the coast of the mainland.

Riding the last northeast monsoon, Yuandou sailed unhurriedly overnight. When the fish maw white appeared in the east, it will see the silhouette of Penghu Islands.

Due to the application of various technological equipment, the traversing forces have a huge environmental advantage in the new world. No matter on land or sea, the night is the friend of the traversers.The well-timed night voyage made it possible for workers who had rested overnight in the cabin to go to work in the early morning.

The purpose of Yuan Douhao's trip is the basalt on the Penghu Islands.

"I don't understand what you guys are thinking, you have to come here to carry stones." Mu Longcheng, the captain of the Yuandou, was dressed in a dark blue 07-style naval officer's uniform, his leather shoes were polished, and on his shoulders was a major's epaulet bought from Taobao. At this moment, handsome Nian's big cap has a very low brim, giving him a dark image of the boss behind the scenes.

Also standing on the bow of the boat, breathing between the morning glow and Haitian, Professor Luo, who seemed to be taking the first breath of purple energy in the morning, slowly closed his work and gave Mu Longcheng a blank eye after finishing the event: "It's the right size, A stone with a qualified shape that can be used to build a high-temperature kiln wall, Master Mu!"

"Oh" Mu Longcheng thought for a while: "I didn't go to the kiln area very much. Are there no stones there?"

"Either they are too small, like pebbles; or they are not too big, with strange shapes. We don't have manpower or machines to cut them, so we can only come to Penghu."

"I understand now. It seems that the people of Penghu have already cut the stones for us."

Professor Luo rolled his eyes again: "Thank you for returning to the Navy, haven't you been to the fort in the northeast corner of the commercial building?"

"Oh, you said the viewing platform. I went up to take a look at the first time. I have to lead troops every day. How can I have the spare time to go to the viewing platform?" Mu Longcheng said puzzled.

"Well, then you must have not noticed the stone wall below the fort?"

"Is there such a thing?"

"Ugh"

When the Dutch were building the business hall, they never thought that one day they would be attacked and bombarded by an army of tens of thousands of people from the west of the business hall.

The northeast direction of the Taijiang Inland Sea Wharf is the focus of the Dutch defense.This can be seen from the architecture: before the arrival of the traversers, the Dutch had begun to add stone walls to the rammed earth walls of the commercial hall, and the fort in the northeast corner was the first to start, and the material used was the basalt of the Penghu Islands.

Basalt is the rock cooled down after the eruption of volcanic magma. The Penghu Islands are volcanic islands, and the base is basalt.This is a good building material, and crushed stone was often used to lay foundations in later generations, but the purpose of Yuandou today is basalt square bricks.

After the volcanic eruption was completed thousands of years ago and the magma gradually cooled down, due to the different cooling rates, the basalt Fangshan would produce polygonal fissures. In Shizhu Mountain, these stone pillars are like square bread cubes stacked together, with clear joints and the same size.

After the Dutch occupied the unmanned Penghu in 1622, they quickly established a series of fortresses on the islands by capturing coastal fishermen. These are standard fortresses with a side length of about 56 meters. The material used is basalt.

After being driven to the top by the Ming army, the Dutch served as officers, especially the officers during the construction period of the city of Geranza. - This is mentioned many times in the Dutchman's own diary.

After Yuandou arrived in Penghu, it did not go to the main island, but went around in a small circle, and chose a smooth beach to dock at Dajishanyu in the northeast corner of Penghu.

After coming here, the spectacular scenery is clear at a glance: like a square match on a shallow dish, a neat columnar sea cliff stands abruptly between the sea and sky, and the magma was on the sea surface thousands of years ago. The slowly cooling scene on the top is faintly discernible.

The beach is littered with black, weathered basalt boulders that fall off naturally along fissures.

The workers who had already prepared have disembarked one after another. They carried bamboo baskets and poles and followed behind Professor Luo who was wearing a jacket.After walking a few steps, Professor Luo selected a square, notebook-sized basalt sample from the pile of stones, and held it above his head.

It didn't take long for the laborers to carry a basket of stones back to the boat.Professor Luo pointed at the bamboo basket and smiled at Mu Longcheng: "Look, there is no need for the people of Penghu at all, and nature will help us do things."

Mu Longcheng was also very surprised at this meeting. He took a telescope and glanced at the bamboo-shaped black sea cliff: "This is really amazing!"

"This is a scenic reserve in later generations. Have you ever been here on your own?"

“Just been to Thailand”

"I don't know, aren't you in the navy? After you retired, you sailed a boat for smuggling or something. Didn't you bring the boat over to take a look?" Professor Luo smirked and began to take revenge.

"Fart! That's called anti-smuggling, not smuggling! If I dare to drive the boat here, it's called arrogance, and it's going to be on the hot search, what nonsense are you talking about!"

"Haha, then take a good look today, enough to see."

Mu Longcheng and Professor Luo set up a small table in the bow of the ship, chatting and spanking, while watching the laborers select from the piles of stones, and then baskets of ashlars were carried down the bilge.At this speed, it is definitely not possible today. Professor Luo roughly calculated that the Yuandou will not be able to return to the full cabin until tomorrow afternoon or darkness at least.

Sure enough, Yuandou stayed at Dajishanyu until [-]:[-] p.m. the next day, before pulling anchor and returning to sail.The return route was a bit strange. The boat did not turn around and returned, but made a big circle around the Penghu Islands. After reaching the westernmost Xiyu Island in Penghu, the speed of the boat slowed down.

The three guests who had been in the cabin since departure were brought on deck.

These three dear friends, Yishui, are black, thin and short, with flat noses and thick lips. They are typical of my Southern Fujian style. The first one is Xu Duanwu.The three brothers were interrogated on the third day after crossing the crowd to capture the officers. In the history, the sea merchant/Da Ming, who died heroically because of his heroic resistance to the villain Zheng Zhilong, left the chief/sea bandit Xu Xinsu in the officer shop. , the family salesman responsible for communicating with the Dutch.

This is also the reason why Yuandou is on this voyage, and why Professor Luo was appointed as a special commissioner: digging stones belongs to mining, and dealing with the three Xu family salesmen belongs to diplomacy. Professor Luo, who understands the air well, goes out.

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(End of this chapter)