Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 253 Investigation of Shilu

There is a large area of ​​wild bamboo forest outside Lizhai. The exploration team asked the local Li people to help them cut down dozens of bamboos. The thick ones were cut into roughly the same length, and the thinner ones were cut into strips and twisted into ropes for binding bamboo rafts.Mr. Wang didn't catch any pheasants, so he took out some of his white sugar and invited a local carpenter to help him make a raft.

According to the local Li population, because the upper reaches gradually enter the mountainous terrain, the river course is relatively rugged, and often has to cross shallow rapids.In order to facilitate passage, the bamboo rafts should not be made too large, and the width of the rafts made should be controlled below 1.2 meters. It is similar to the simple bamboo rafts used in Hunan, Jiangxi and other places. Each bamboo raft can carry 5 people, but they have a lot of equipment. So I ended up making three.The carpenters in the village made some bamboo benches and fixed them on the bamboo rafts.Another icing on the cake, a canopy with a bamboo strip roof was added to each bamboo raft-the sun is very strong here.

It took less than a day to build the bamboo raft.On the morning of the third day, Li Benqing's malaria was completely cured, not only his mind was clear, but his appetite also recovered.He Ping gave him another last dose of medicine as a reinforcement.

Li Benqing was very grateful to this group of strange Han people who cured his disease, and wished to give the whole family a reward.This kind of cold and fever occurs once a year.Every time it takes almost a month of tossing like this to get better.This time, after taking the medicine for three days, everything will be fine. The Han people also said that there will be no recurrence this time.Although doubtful, it is absolutely true that the medicine will take effect immediately after taking the medicine.

It's just that there is nothing else in his house except two machetes and a few crossbows.Li Benqing was very embarrassed and insisted on going out to hunt some wild game to entertain him, but was stopped by Xiong Buyou.

"Game is fine. We've been stuck here for a few days and want to go upstream today. Can you help me find a guide who's familiar with the place?"

"Going upstream?" Li Benqing was a little surprised, even Li people seldom go to this place.If you want to collect herbs, there are things on the mountains upstream, and you can also collect them on the nearby hills.

"Yes, go to Shiluling, do you know this place?" Xiong Buyou asked.

"I've never heard of it." Li Benqing refused very simply.The exploration team couldn't help but become suspicious.But according to Mu Min, this person is not lying - she has been a policeman for many years, so she can tell if she is lying or not.

Xiong Buyou didn't give up, and continued to gesture: "There is a river under the mountain, and it flows into Changhua River, it is called Shilu River—"

Li Benqing still shook his head.

Cui Yunhong thought of it:

"Ask him, is there a mountain with green stones here?"

The so-called green stone is copper ore - malachite.The place name Shilu comes from malachite.Because the local Li and Han people in Hainan are used to putting modifiers after the nouns when they speak, the so-called Shilu is actually "green stone".

Shiluling was first noticed not because of the iron ore, but because of the copper ore outcrop on the surface here.Since the Qing Dynasty, there have been people mining and stealing.It was not until 1935 when the Qiongya Industrial Bureau sent people to Shiluling to investigate copper mines that it was discovered for the first time that the most abundant mineral reserves in Shilu were iron ore.

"Yes, yes," Li Benqing suddenly realized, "You are going to Yayuling!"

Xiong Buyou didn't know what Yayuling was, but Cui Yunhong did, and the contents of the textbook that had been vague for a long time became clear.

"Yes, yes, it is Yayuling!" Cui Yunhong nodded repeatedly, thinking that she was really confused, the place name Shilu was only used in the Qing Dynasty.It is still the world of Ming Dynasty.

Mr. Wang said, "Uncle, haven't you been to Yayuling before?"

Li Benqing looked troubled.One person pondered for a long time, and everyone waited anxiously, but Li Benqing spoke crappy Hainanese, except for Xiong Buyou, no one really could communicate with him.

After a long while, Li Benqing lowered his voice and said, "The shopkeepers are probably not peddlers, are they?"

Everyone was shocked when they heard this, Xiong Buyou smiled and said, "What are we doing here in Lidong, not for business."

Li Benqing said: "The shopkeepers cured my illness, so I just said a few words." He paused, "It's nothing to lead everyone to Yayuling, it's not far from here, and the road is not difficult. Although I didn't I have been there a few times, and I still know the way. But I would like to advise a few of you: the gold and silver on Yayuling are all in the town of Qiongzhou, protected by the gods, and cannot be picked."

It turns out that there are rumors of treasures on Yayuling, many years ago.Even if there were no rumors of gold and silver in the mountains, the copper mines themselves were extremely attractive.So every ten or ten years, as long as Lidong is quiet and there is nothing wrong, there will be Han people coming together to mine on Yayuling, but no one has ever succeeded, either because the gold and silver cannot be mined and the cost is lost, or because The mine collapsed and caused casualties, so it had to be abandoned.Over time, it has been rumored that this mountain is a big town on the island, an important place for geomantic omen, and is protected by gods.

After listening to Li Benqing's gossip, everyone knew that Shiluling had long been famous.It seems that the so-called lack of pioneering spirit of the Chinese is pure fart. In an ancient society with low technological level and traffic congestion, trekking hundreds of miles in this barren mountains to mine mines, how can a nation without an adventurous spirit be able to do it? ?

"We're not going to mine gold and silver, we just want to visit Yayuling," Xiong Buyou continued to persuade, "we'll leave in a few days."

Li Benqing said: "It's all on me to take you there. It's just that I ask the shopkeepers to think more about what I said."

Mr. Wang didn’t have these taboos, and said with a smile: “Uncle, you can take them there. When you come back, the shopkeepers will reward you with a few catties of white sugar. You can also use it to beg for an aunt for me, so you don’t have to go to the gate of Guilong every day.” Singing to find a woman is 'too scary'!"

Li Benqing smiled and said: "You are so young, what nonsense are you talking about? Don't have to learn, just learn this!"

The so-called "guilong" is a special building in Lizhai. Several women in the same village will build a house by themselves when they reach the age of marriage, and go there to sleep at night. Men who intend to find a spouse go there every night "Guilong" and "Lueya", if a woman likes it, she will stay with a man.When most people talk about going to "guilong", they always say "lueya", which means to fall in love, and a few people say "to scare too", which means that two people have sexual relations.

It was agreed that Li Benqing would lead the way to Yayuling. As for the reward, Li Benqing didn't want it, so Cui Yunhong gave him a new hook knife, a bottle of white wine and a few catties of sugar.Li Benqing liked it very much, so he accepted it.

Taking care of his initial recovery, the expedition team rested in Lizhai for another day. The exploration team has not been free these days. They roughly surveyed the resources around Lizhai and drew a topographic map.In terms of resources, apart from saponin forest, a small-scale tin mine was discovered nearby, but unfortunately, the transportation is inconvenient and there is no mining value.

Early the next morning, everyone went upstream on bamboo rafts.Mr. Wang stayed in Lizhai to take care of the goods and luggage they left behind.Everyone packed lightly, only bringing the necessary equipment and camping tools.Li Benqing brought dry food and salt by himself, and carried a crossbow on his back.Mu Min curiously asked if all the arrows he brought were poisoned.

"No, poisonous arrow wood is hard to find. If you find it, the local Han people are not allowed to use it." Li Benqing gestured.The Han people he refers to are officials in Changhua City.

I heard that poisonous arrow wood is hard to find, and several camping enthusiasts are a little bit uninterested.However, everyone was very interested in his crossbow, and they played with it in turn. The structure of this crossbow was very simple, and the effective range would not exceed 50 meters. No wonder Li Benqing said that he mainly used this crossbow to hit the ground in places where wild animals haunted.But he seldom hunts with crossbow bolts - if he wants to sell fur, it is worthless if it is pierced by crossbow bolts.Li Benqing hunted mainly by digging traps and setting various traps.Several hunting enthusiasts in the exploration team took turns exchanging relevant experiences with him on the bamboo raft.The relationship has also warmed up a lot.

Li Benqing hunted quite a few animals. Jiang Muzhi, who was in charge of collecting biological data in the exploration team, soon knew from his description that there were ferret badgers, otters, big and small civets, civet cats and other animals of considerable economic value in the local area. , As for hares, wild boars and the like, they are quite widely distributed.The most surprising thing is that there are black bears locally.

"This thing is not easy to mess with—" Li Benqing shook his head, "It runs fast and can climb trees."

But this resource is of little use to the traversers, they don't need bearskin as a hat, and the use of bear bile is not on the agenda, relatively speaking, deerskin is more useful.

Li Benqing said that there are two kinds of deer in the local area, one is big and the other is small.The exploration team quickly figured out that the big one was sambar, while the small one was barking deer.Both species of deer are of great economic value.

Because there are few opportunities to conduct field animal inspections for forestry professionals, veteran hunters like Li Benqing are the best investigation objects. What is commendable is that he can describe the characteristics of each hunted animal quite accurately. Come on, this makes the judgment of the time traveler a lot easier.

Seeing that they took a notebook and kept recording his words, Li Benqing was surprised and proud at the same time. He couldn't understand why these Han people valued so much other than the usual gossip and gossip, so they wrote them down.The purpose of their visit adds a bit of mystery.

Because it is the dry season, the water volume is not large, and the current is very gentle. It is not difficult to go up with a penny punting boat, but it is often necessary to pass through rocky shoals.In some places, the rocky beach is out of the water, and the bamboo raft has to be carried over to move on.

As the bamboo raft went up, the exploration team carefully observed the changes in the main channel and the side tributaries, and kept recording the surrounding topography and vegetation types.The trees on the shore are sparse, but the bushes and grass are dense, and the bamboo rafts passing by will startle the birds and some unknown small animals in the grass from time to time.There is no sign of human activity on either side of the strait—Li Benqing's adventurous Han Chinese miners did not leave much trace here.

At three or four o'clock in the afternoon, the bamboo raft finally arrived at the place known as Sanchahe Town in later generations. Of course, this place is still a barren grassland.The current became very shallow, and the bamboo raft touched the gravel at the bottom of the river more than once.As for the Shilu River, this tributary of the Changhua River is now unsuitable for boats at all, and can only barely submerge people's ankles.

The exploration team decided to abandon the ship and land here, and everyone worked together to drag the bamboo rafts ashore.According to Li Benqing, if you go upriver along the river, you will arrive there after another fifty or sixty miles.Because it was going to be late, everyone camped here to rest and prepare to set off early the next morning.

The exploration team set up a bonfire in the camp, lighting a lot of mosquitoes smoked with Artemisia annua.In order to avoid suspicion, the expedition team did not take out any equipment that was too eye-catching.However, their matches, sleeping bags and dry food still aroused Li Benqing's strong interest-especially the matches.Dinner is grass series dry food.It was the first time Li Benqing ate rice cakes, and he said they were delicious.Everyone gave him a lot of their share.Li Benqing made bamboo rice in return. After adding a little salt and lemongrass, the taste of bamboo rice whetted everyone's appetite.

At night, when they were about to go to sleep, they heard a suspicious growling sound.Thinking of what Li Benqing said about Hei Xiong, many people became nervous.In order to ensure a safe sleep, Cui Yunhong took care to prepare the guns, and at the same time lit a pile of vigorous fires. Everyone took turns on duty and kept adding fuel in large quantities-there were hay and small shrub branches everywhere.

The next day, they all got up at five o'clock in the morning, had a hasty breakfast and started on the road again.Everyone continued to walk upstream along the river, making seven turns and turning, relying on the compass, map and Li Benqing's guidance, and walked another fifty or sixty miles. At sunset, they finally reached the foot of the mountain, the clear river Slowly flowing out of a valley ahead.

"This is Yayuling." Li Benqing pointed.

Cui Yunhong knew that he had reached the place. He found the compass and looked at it against the setting sun. The compass pointed to the southwest. Looking in the direction of the pointer, it was a reddish-brown mountain.He nodded. This area should be the famous Hainan Shilu Magnetite Mine.

Everyone was excited, Shilu Iron Mine!This is the largest open-pit iron-rich mine in China, and the magnetite reserves with an average iron content of more than 42% are nearly [-] million tons!It is also accompanied by various ores such as cobalt, copper, nickel, silver, sulfur, and dolomite. If there is no coal production here, Shilu would be a natural large-scale coal-iron complex base.

Cui Yunhong was so excited that she was dizzy and almost fell down. She was about to climb up the mountain with equipment in a hurry. Everyone hurriedly stopped them, saying that it was getting dark and it was not safe to climb the mountain. It would not be too late to go tomorrow.

Now set up a camp by the stream.There was nothing to say all night. On the second day, Cui Yunhong led the team and formed a 5-member team to go up the mountain.The rest stayed in the camp.

Yayuling is not high, and the mountain has no steepness.The overall vegetation on the hillside is still a landscape of savannah, with a large area of ​​thatch taller than a person.Although it is better than the tropical rain forest, climbing is quite strenuous.Fortunately, Li Benqing, an old hunter, led the way. He would choose a route with relatively sparse vegetation.

(End of this chapter)