Xu Chen's sudden arrival naturally caused a sensation in the entire camp.
Not long after the team arrived, the witch of the Yugong clan hurriedly came from the direction of the salt mine with a group of people, their faces full of excitement and surprise.
"Your Majesty the Witch King, why are you here suddenly?" Wu Gongwu, wearing a blue cloak and holding a luxurious golden scepter, squatted on the ground and saluted from a distance.
Xu Chen briefly told the story of the attack on Lei and others, and then said that he just wanted to go to the Tung Forest camp and passed by the salt mine to inspect the construction progress.
Witch Yu Gong then enthusiastically explained the construction situation of the camp in detail, and took Xu Chen to inspect the salt mine.
Salt mines have also changed greatly.
When Xu Chen left last time, the fence around the core salt lake had not yet been completed. Only a row of pergolas and wooden houses were simply built on the salt-alkali stalls for resting and storing salt.
But now, not only are the fences and fences around the lake that are as tall as a person completed, but the large salt flats surrounding them have also been cleaned up, with almost no debris visible.
Many wooden frames were set up around the salt lake, with dense rattan baskets placed on them. Many barbarian men and women were digging and mining salt under the leadership of several Mongolian salt mine barbarians. There were also some Yugong hunters patrolling inside and outside the salt mine. The entire
The salt factory seems to be operating in an orderly manner.
Xu Chen walked around the salt lake and looked at the wooden house where the salt was stored. He found that it was almost filled with rattan baskets and sacks filled with salt.
"Your Majesty the Witch King, collecting salt is very fast, and you can make several large baskets in one day, but it is very slow to carry it out. It takes ten days to go back and forth!" Witch Yu Gong explained as he followed Xu Chen.
"Well, so you need to speed up road construction. It is best to build the road to the Mongolian people before the beginning of spring. Then it will be much more convenient for horse-drawn carriages. In addition, the waterway from the Tung Forest to the Cicha people has also been found.
After I conquer this barbarian tribe this time, water transportation will be more convenient in the future. You can build a trail leading to the tung tree forest, which can temporarily accommodate wheelbarrows. This way, transportation by water and land will be much more convenient in the future!
"
"Yes, I will complete the task as soon as possible according to His Majesty the Witch King's instructions!" The witch of the Yu Gong clan nodded quickly.
"Then I'll leave you to worry about the salt mine. I have to rush to the Tung Forest camp as soon as possible!"
After Xu Chen briefly explained a few words, he turned back to the camp surrounded by a group of people. On the way, he remembered the purpose of Yu Gongwu coming here this time, so he gave some guidance: "Since spicy fruit is adapted to the climate and environment in the dense forests of the south, you can
Arrange for people to open vegetable gardens in the camp or near the Xiu people, and plant more. The demand in the royal city may be greater in the future. In addition, more should be sent to the palace every year. I like the taste of spicy fruits very much."
Witch Yu Gong's cheeks turned slightly red, and then she suppressed a smile and said quickly: "Yes, I will send more spicy fruits to His Majesty the Witch King every year from now on."
Back at the camp, Xu Chen did not stay any longer, and set off again with his team of hunters and craftsmen, heading straight for the tung forest.
Going to the southeast, the forest becomes denser. Towering trees with a diameter of several meters can be seen everywhere. Ancient vines are entangled like long dragons and giant pythons. Although it is late autumn and almost winter, except for some broad-leaved plants, a large number of trees are still lush and green, and even some trees are still green.
There are a large number of exotic flowers and plants or colorful mushrooms, and the entire dense forest is filled with an aura of decay accumulated over hundreds of millions of years.
All kinds of wild beasts, big and small, were running and patrolling near the team, and wild birds were flying around.
The most common wild beasts are monkeys, which are almost everywhere. They climb and jump in groups among the woods, threatening hunters with their claws and teeth, and sometimes drop stones and wild fruits.
When faced with these annoying monkeys, hunters will not tolerate them. Whenever they see them, they will shoot them with bows and arrows. There will always be a few of the most ferocious ones that jump closest to them, and they will be unlucky and turn into dead monkeys.
It fell down and became the trophy of a group of hunters.
There are no roads at all in the forest. The ancient trees are tangled with their roots, and the moss and leaves are several feet thick. In some places, you can sink up to your thighs if you step on them. Even in some slightly sparse open spaces, you can still see many remaining huge trees.
The skeleton should be a beast trapped to death in these unknown mire.
Although they are only separated by a river, the distance is only a hundred or two hundred miles.
But Jiangnan and Jiangbei seem to be two completely different climate environments.
There is no open and dry autumn atmosphere like the plains here, but instead there is a sense of darkness and moisture only found in primitive rainforests.
Fortunately, it is autumn and winter now, and there is little rain. Although it is difficult to walk in the dense forest, it is relatively safe to walk along some tree roots and densely forested areas.
If it were a hot summer with heavy rains and continuous rain, it would be difficult to walk in this dense forest without a familiar guide.
With more than a dozen hunters who had been here before led by Lei leading the way, and with some marks left before, the team was moving fairly smoothly.
One day later, the team arrived near the tung tree forest.
After climbing over a mountain ridge, the front suddenly opened up. What appeared in everyone's eyes was a large lake stretching for more than ten miles, like a huge blue gem embedded in the surrounding low mountains.
.
You are still young when you travel through the Qingshan Mountains, but the scenery here is uniquely beautiful.
The autumn sunset, standing high above the ground, facing the slightly cool lake breeze blowing in the smell of the lake water, Xu Chen couldn't help but his eyes brightened, and his heart suddenly felt relaxed.
"Your Majesty the Witch King, the camp is over there!"
Lei stood next to Xu Chen and pointed to a slightly open area to the east of the lake, about four or five miles away.
Xu Chen focused his eyes on the area near the camp, and then slowly swept around the lake. He found that although there were many towering trees around the lake, they were obviously much sparse, and there were a large number of broad-leaved plants on the gentle slopes. In late autumn, these plants began to lose their leaves.
, the whole area presents an interlaced color of gold and red, which contrasts with the surrounding rolling green mountains, turquoise lakes and clear blue sky. The scenery is particularly beautiful and completely different from the Gonghuo Basin.
The sun was almost setting at this time.
A group of people stopped for a short rest on the top of the mountain and then quickly headed to the camp.
As we got closer to the lake, we began to see many tung trees on the hillside.
These tung trees are not small either. The big ones are as thick as two people hugging each other, and the smaller ones are as thick as a calf. These branches are lush and leafy, and they grow together with a large number of ginkgo and tung trees.
The interlacing colors of gold and red around the lake are the convergence of three main trees: tung trees, tung trees, and ginkgo trees. They are like brocade clouds, so beautiful that it makes people enchanted.
Ginkgo and Ginkgo biloba are both known as living fossils in the plant world.
Most of these two plants became extinct during the Quaternary Ice Age.
In later generations, only a small amount survived in Bashu and Yunnan-Guizhou areas.
But I didn't expect that there was such a dense vegetation hidden in the primeval forest across the river.
If you come here in spring, the scenery should be more beautiful.
The tung flower is inherently beautiful, but the tung flower is even more beautiful. These two beautiful flowers bloom at the same time in spring, and I don’t know what kind of beautiful sea of flowers it is around the lake.
Xu Chen was envious of the Flower Valley of the Hu people.
But compared to the scenery of this great lake, it is completely worth mentioning.
Now is the autumn and winter season. Not only the tung trees are harvesting, but the ginkgo and tung trees are also ripe, and both of them are edible fruits.
"These barbarians really know how to pick places!"
Along the way, Xu Chen couldn't help but sigh with emotion as he looked at the fruit-bearing ginkgo trees and tung trees.
The gently sloping area around the lake covers an area of tens of thousands of acres, and the three types of trees growing in it are simply countless.
By setting up a camp here, not only can you harvest a large amount of tung trees, but the yield of ginkgo and tung trees is also very impressive. At least tens of thousands of kilograms of dried fruits can be earned in a year.
However, although these two fruits are edible and very nutritious, they contain trace amounts of toxins and are not suitable for long-term consumption in large amounts as food.
But it doesn’t matter whether they can be eaten for a long time. At least they can be eaten and can be used as emergency food. Moreover, they are a kind of dried fruit snack with high nutritional value.
Xu Chen has eaten both of these dried fruits and they taste good.
The most important thing is that, like Tung tung trees, oil can also be extracted from the fruits.
The difference between the two is that tung oil is highly toxic and can only be used as industrial raw materials, while tung oil can be used as both industrial oil and edible oil. It has a fragrant and mellow taste and is a rare high-quality edible oil.
Xu Chen felt that he had really come to the right place.
If he hadn't come, he might never have known that there were these two rare and rare high-quality tree species here.
You will also miss out on discovering the only oil crop that can be used as cooking oil.
Now he is planning to build a pressing house here to produce tung oil.
At the same time, vegetable oil can also be extracted from the tung tree fruits.
With vegetable oil, you will be able to eat more delicious stir-fries in the future.
The copper pot was already there, and cooking seemed to have suddenly gone from being out of reach to being right before our eyes. Xu Chen's mouth watered when he thought of this.
However, this matter seems easy to think of, but in fact it needs to be handled with caution.
This was the first time he had seen tung trees and tung trees growing together in large numbers.
The two plants, one poisonous and the other non-toxic, have to be extracted and transported. If you are not careful, it will lead to an irreversible tragedy.
Once the tung seeds are mixed with the tung seeds and squeezed into oil, you will be poisoned if you eat them.
Even if the oil is not wrong, if the pressed tung oil and the common tung oil are mixed up, the consequences will be more serious, which may lead to the poisoning and death of senior Pakistani officials.
It's not that Xu Chen doesn't believe in himself, but he doesn't believe in these primitive people, let alone a group of primitive indigenous barbarians here.
It is not easy for these tribes who cannot even use fire and barbarians who cannot even communicate in language to clearly distinguish these two different fruits and seeds, and during the harvesting process, most of them
It is picking up fallen fruits from under the tree, and it is even more difficult for them to distinguish them clearly.
Therefore, even though Xu Chen walked eloquently all the way to the camp, he was still not sure whether his idea should be implemented.
The newly built camp is located on a gentle slope one mile away from the big lake.
This is almost the edge of the woods.
Closer to the lake, there are large areas covered with shrubs and thorns and weeds.
Moreover, it is also possible to clearly distinguish the area that is submerged when the water rises in summer, and there is an obvious dividing line between plants.
Beyond the dividing line, there is a lake beach covered with reeds and weeds.
At this time, the setting sun is setting in the west, and the golden light is slanting on the sparkling lake. It is surrounded by green mountains, and the lakeshore is intertwined with gold and red. Thousands of birds are flying back to their nests, and their chirping converges into a natural and harmonious noise and tranquility.