Chapter 540, the good thing that there is no glass beads for land
After drinking water and almost resting, Sun Xuebin led the people to follow the people and walked towards the mountains.
But this time he set off, it was different from before. In addition to a few crossing officers, he also brought a platoon of soldiers, as well as a lot of food, tools and so on.
You must not have the intention of harming others, and you must have the intention of guarding against others.
In any case, as the advance team, safety needs to be guaranteed first.
Sun Xuebin didn't believe it. Nearly 30 soldiers armed with Thunderbolt 1646 rifles, plus five crossing officers, would cause trouble.
However, officers’ standard firearms should be put on the agenda.
Sun Xuebin was thinking about it while following Li Min.
After all, all the time-traveling officers were carrying rifles on their backs, and they looked really stupid.
Besides, in many cases, it is impossible for the officers to move to the front, and the Thunderbolt 1646 rifle is too inconvenient for officers to use for self-defense.
These Limin tribes were not too far away, and they only walked more than ten kilometers on the mountain road before arriving at Jijiao Village.
The transaction with Jijiao Village went smoothly.
The salt, iron pot, and knife that Sun Xuebin took out were the most popular products. Many people rushed to exchange their accumulated furs for these three products.
No way, the people cannot produce salt themselves. In the past, the salt brought by caravans was mixed in color, bitter in taste, and extremely expensive. At most, more than a dozen good-quality furs could only be replaced with one.
pound of salt.
But Sun Xuebin and others are different. Their transactions are more of a friendly discount.
For a pound of salt, you can exchange it for five furs!
This price is more than half cheaper than those of profiteers, and it is almost driving the people crazy with excitement.
The iron pot is also a necessity in life.
In the past, the iron pot in the village broke down, so everyone had to make stone pots for cooking.
But everyone who has never used a stone pot knows that, not to mention that it will explode easily when burned. Even if the food is cooked, some gravel inside the stone pot will fall off due to heat and mix into the food, causing damage.
teeth.
As for the knife, it is a good tool for cutting meat and peeling skin.
In addition, foods such as candies and instant noodles are also relatively popular among the people.
On the contrary, it was a glass bead prepared by the public, but not many people came to it. In the end, he had to give the glass beads to the children of the people who had always wanted it but had no interest in it.
Obviously, the people are not stupid. The kind of good thing that can be exchanged for a large piece of land with a few glass beads is impossible to happen here.
When those traveling through the village were bringing out their goods to trade with the people, Sun Xuebin paid a visit to the Dong owner of the village.
The Dong Lord was an elderly man who smoked dry cigarettes. When they met, he gave Sun Xuebin a surprise: "Welcome to our distinguished guests."
It turns out that this Dong master went out when he was young and saw a lot, so there was no barrier to language communication, and his treatment of outsiders was not as extreme as some Dong masters.
After all, the imperial court would raise taxes on the people when nothing happened, and the people would rebel and make trouble, only to be suppressed by the army. As a result, the contradiction between the two sides became more and more serious, making the people not very cold to outsiders.
After Sun Xuebin presented a military dagger, ten kilograms of salt and several kilograms of candy as gifts, the two parties had a pleasant conversation.
Finally, Sun Xuebin expressed his desire to open a mine near Jinniuling and expressed his willingness to hire people.
After some thought, the Dong Lord agreed to Sun Xuebin's request, but he also made his own request, which was that Sun Xuebin needed to send some salt, iron tools, and grain to Jijiao Village every year as expenses.
In response, Sun Xuebin nodded in agreement without any hesitation.
Compared with the Shilu Iron Mine's reserves of more than 300 million tons, sending some salt, iron tools, and food every year is nothing at all. It can be said to be a drop in the bucket.
The day after the agreement was reached, Sun Xuebin returned home.
However, there were more than fifty young and strong civilians who followed him back.
The population of Jijiao Village is about five hundred, and it can be regarded as one of the largest villages among the more than ten villages nearby.
These fifty-odd young men are just the initial test of the waters.
If Sun Xuebin can fulfill his promise, Jiujiao Village will naturally send more people to accept employment in the dock area in the future.
In the following time, those people temporarily acted as guides, taking Sun Xuebin and others back and forth between Jinniu Ridge and Shilu Ridge, collecting many ore specimens.
After the camp at the landing site was built, the fishing boats departing from the dock area arrived again, bringing cement, steam engines, gunpowder and labor.
Except for some of the laborers who were from the construction team and naturalized civilians, the rest were previously captured Ming soldiers and pirates.
From this moment on, the previously sparsely populated river bank became lively.
From time to time, loud noises resounded among the mountains, startling the people who looked at the rocks that kept breaking and falling in confusion.
Afterwards, the common people acted as overseers, wielding whips and spears, and asked the hard laborers to send the gravel to the gravel machine. After being processed by the gravel machine, it was then sent to the front for paving roads.
At the same time, shiploads of rails were also transported from the dock area.
As long as the road is paved for a certain distance, the rails will follow.
In addition, there are also some sailboats busy on the Changjiang River.
This sailing team is commanded by Wang Haitao, and the crew and sailors are all recruits from the Naval Academy. Some of them are converted pirates, and some are naturalized citizens recruited.
Their mission is to blow up some reefs on the Changjiang River.
For this reason, the industrial group seized the time to develop mercury fulminate.
In any case, with the knowledge of future generations put there, it is still very easy to study mercury fulminate, yellow medicine, etc.
It just depends on whether the industrial team has time.
After all, a dangerous experiment like this requires not only clearing the site, but also time.
Mercury fulminate plus yellow drug, as long as it is installed in place, it is easy to blow up the reef.
Through this work of clearing the reef, Wang Haitao's recruits not only practiced their sailing skills, but also learned some basic blasting skills. It can be said that they killed two birds with one stone.
Don't underestimate this blasting skill. If you master it well, it can be very useful in raiding enemy ports in the future.
One month later, Fang Xiaoyue and other members of the industrial team and the geological exploration personnel of the logistics team took a fishing boat up the Changjiang River.
The fishing boat is loaded with the most cutting-edge industrial product of the industrial group - a steam locomotive!
This thing alone weighs more than thirty tons. In order to develop this locomotive and tracks, etc., the industrial team can be said to have selected some technologies in advance.