On the third day after the confrontation, during yesterday's negotiations, the Japanese made multiple representations in one day, showing a little eagerness, and finally relaxed a little.
Originally, Lin Mo was planning to go to Shanghai today to learn about the situation, but he didn't feel at ease if the things Zheng Junshan prepared for arrived today and he didn't do it himself, so he had to postpone his arrival in Shanghai.
Of course, another reason is that although the injury on his leg healed well and did not affect normal walking, Lin Mo was worried that he would be too pushy and something would go wrong that would affect his follow-up actions, so he simply chose to stay healthy for another day.
The chances of skin injuries getting worse after three or four days of treatment will be much lower. He also has some information that he needs to know, but he just needs to know it in more detail, but currently it is not far behind within one or two days.
It will take some time for Zheng Junshan to come back from receiving the goods, which should be around noon, so Lin Mo is still recuperating at the base in the reed marsh for the time being.
It was said to be recuperating, but it was actually just relaxing inside. However, his leg was injured and he had not been able to move his muscles and bones for a few days, which made Lin Mo feel a little uncomfortable, so he decided to get something delicious.
It doesn’t make it too complicated. Cut the bones of several large fish like ribs and stew them directly in a large pot. Cut the fish meat into finger-thick steaks and fry them directly on an iron plate.
Although it is not the most suitable way to eat it, the quality of the fish is not bad and it is processed properly, so the taste is not bad.
Pan-fried fish pieces are divided into pieces. Different fish have different tastes. Some are amazing, and some are relatively average. Lin Mo's favorite is tuna and swordfish. The taste is not bad, but the main reason is that there are no bones.
The taste of the fish bone soup was a bit beyond Lin Mo's expectation. I thought it would be a little fishy, but instead of not having it, it tasted very delicious.
Lin Mo thought about it and guessed that it was a large fish bone with more bone marrow inside, and after bleeding and shaving the flesh, there was no residual fish blood, so there was no fishy smell.
Because it tastes better when eaten while it's hot, everyone just made it while eating it. There weren't so many rules and there was no need to wait.
By the time Zheng Junshan came back after receiving the goods, everyone had finished eating. The fish steaks were freshly fried, morning and night. As for the bone soup, the soup was almost finished, but no one was chewing the fish bones.
The food tastes good, just like eating ribs. The most important thing is that because of the bone quality, the fish bones are more like brittle bones. There are no broken bones after cutting. Moreover, this big fish has no small fish bones, so it tastes very good.
After eating and drinking, everyone rested for a while. Lin Mo then took the people out and boarded the Li family's small steamer. This small boat definitely couldn't carry so much equipment, so he also dragged the boat behind him to act as a barge.
Carrying more stuff.
The size of the barge is similar to that of a small steamer, and it also has an open cabin without an enclosed cabin. Because it is not loaded with miscellaneous engines such as coal and coal, and its weight is also low, the cargo capacity is not low. Those large machines are basically equipped with
on top.
First, temporarily release the towing rope, then the small steamer sails back to the big ship, loads the tools and materials on the ship, and then drags it back onto the small ship and leaves.
Everything went smoothly on the journey, and we arrived at the hidden spot of the wild lake that Wang Shoufei and others had a good look at. There were many more fishing boats and cargo ships here than in the flood discharge lake where they stopped.
However, small steamboats of this size are not uncommon here, and they even encountered a few larger ones on the road, but they didn't attract much special attention.
The place is indeed quite hidden, in a wetland and reed marsh that extends into the lake area. However, the dry and hot weather has caused the water area to shrink, and the reed marsh and wetland are already a long way away from the lake.
The place Wang Shoufei found was a slightly larger lake surrounded by these wetlands and reed swamps. Because the water area is large and deep, the area of the remaining water area is not small.
But this is also relative. Compared with the serious lake area, it is just a large pond, and its surrounding areas, which used to be crisscrossed by wetlands and reed swamps, and dotted with lakes and ponds, were generally shallow and have basically dried up now.
.
It is not dry, but the surrounding waterways are basically dry and have bottomed out. Although this pond is connected to a slightly wider and deeper waterway, the navigation conditions are not bad, which is why the lake area can still be maintained.
But it's quite strenuous to twist and turn all the way around, and you can't do much after you get in. There's almost no one here at the moment.
In the past, there were still people living in the surrounding wetlands and reed marshes, but there were no settlements such as villages. Most of them were poor fishermen with no land and no homes. They lived in scattered shacks and earned some limited resources by fishing.
However, as the waters shrink, it has become extremely inconvenient to continue to live in these places. Some may have to walk hundreds of meters to reach the water's edge, and there are large sections of exposed lake mud along the way, making it impossible to walk.
Therefore, they can only give up their shacks, live on boats, rely on fishing in the lake, or go to the villages and towns around the lake area to make a living.
Naturally, I didn't find such a secret place by myself. When I was looking for a place, I happened to encounter a relatively large duck boat that sailed out of this waterway.
Duck boats are similar to beekeepers who drive around and carry ducks. They are often found in places like lake areas, where ducks are raised around and allowed to eat aquatic plants, fish, shrimps and snails in shallow waters.
Although they are running around, they don't have to travel far to track the flowering period like beekeepers. The activity area is relatively fixed, but they need to run around, so they are very familiar with the water environment in the area.
He used to raise his ducks in that small lake. The duck boat was not small, which meant that the waterway was navigable. At the same time, the place where the ducks were raised was also not small, so he followed this clue and found this lake.
It was quite troublesome to drag a barge through this crooked waterway. I lost control of the direction several times and hit the bottom at corners.
Fortunately, the bottom of the water was mostly mud, and there was a power boat to help us get out of trouble, so these troubles were just a waste of time.
Driving out of the waterway, we saw nearly ten boats moored in the middle of the lake area. They were roughly divided into two types: large and small. The small boats were one-third the size of the big boats and were about the same size as the barges towed by small steamers.
But the shapes are all the same, open in the open without enclosed cabins. It can't be said to be open-air. Two of them were covered with canopies, which were probably used by Wang Shoufei and others for temporary residence last night.
Currently, only one person is left on the ship. Wang Shoufei and others are not present. They are still outside and continuing to purchase ships, but they should be returning soon. The last thing they went to purchase was the shipyard inventory that they had inquired about, and they could probably buy it all in one go.
After saying hello to the brothers who stayed behind and giving them the fish he had fried and packed, Lin Mo directed his people and started working with tools and materials.
It's not a big project, just build a platform at the stern and in the middle of the outboard, first build two or three triangular support frames, and then nail the wooden boards on the top.
Because the boats are made of logs that are simply processed to build the hull, they can be nailed directly on. If you are not sure about the firmness, use a few more thick nails to nail them.
However, just to be on the safe side, Lin Mo also had someone use a manual drill to drill holes in the wood of the frame and the hull, and then hammered in a steel drill that was thicker than your thumb. The wooden squares and planks were also quite strong.
The wood is so good that even a few people can jump on the countertop without any problem.
The first thing to modify was a small boat, so Lin Mo let the small boat come to the side and directly unloaded a small machine onto the built platform.
The machine was modified using an engine, and a chassis was added. After the bottom boat was fixed on the table, the machine could still rotate 30 degrees left and right, and could also pitch slightly up and down.
Outside the machine, a frame made of steel bars is also installed. On the one hand, it prevents the exposed parts from hurting people when the machine is running. On the other hand, it facilitates the layout of pipelines and the like.
On the side of the ship, a handrail is installed, which can control the machine to swing up and down left and right. It is easier to move left and right, but it is quite laborious to move up and down.
On the armrest, there are two handles similar to bicycle brakes. One can control the throttle, and the other can directly stop the engine.
On the other side, there is a long transmission shaft, one end is connected to the engine power shaft, and the other end is equipped with a propeller.
These additional parts were all separated, and Lin Mo directed everyone to assemble them one by one. Fortunately, they were all made in strict accordance with the required dimensions. Everything went smoothly and there were no problems.
As for what this is? It’s obvious! Temporarily modified boat engines, to be precise, should be called outboard engines. They were very common in Southeast Asian countries with crisscrossed waterways in later generations, but they were improvised and pieced together, so they were barely usable.
After installing the machine on the table, Lin Mo personally checked it again and confirmed that there was no problem. Then he got a large square oil drum from the ship, fastened the buckle on the inside of the ship, and simply tied the oil barrel with a leather tie.
Fixed.
The lid of the oil drum has been modified so that the engine's oil pipe can be inserted into it and fixed, and the oil drum serves as a simple fuel tank.
The battery was also removed, but it was placed a little further away and wired along the sides of the ship to connect it.
Then, the engine was carefully lubricated, then a small amount of oil was added to the fuel tank, and the engine was started.
"...Boom...Boom..." After trying several times, the machine started smoothly. However, because the operation was not very skillful, the boat started to move and hit another boat next to it.
Lin Mo had no choice but to quickly turn off the machine. Fortunately, the power was limited and it did not cause any major problems. After using a pole to push the boat out, Lin Mo restarted the machine.
In order to simplify the structure and modification difficulty, the reversing function of the ship engine was directly cancelled. Turning can control the left and right rotation of the ship engine, and it can also turn around within a certain range, but the reverse function does not exist.
Because Lin Mo had participated in the testing of the samples sent before, he was not too familiar with them, but he was not very proficient and not very familiar with them.
After starting, Lin Mo circled the lake area a few times and tested it again. The power was acceptable, but there was a sense of obstruction in the rotation adjustment direction. It is estimated that adding some lubricating oil to the connecting part of the rotating shaft or polishing it carefully should be improved.
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As for the speed, Lin Mo felt that it should be barely ten knots. However, the lake area is small and most of the time is spent turning, so a lot of things should be wasted. If it goes straight straight, it should be much faster.
Of course, this refers to the speed in calm waters like small lakes without the influence of wind, waves and currents.
If there are wind and waves, the speed depends on the direction of the wind and waves. Faster with the wind and slower with the wind. If you are driving on the Zhihe River, then the speed depends on the direction of the wind and the current.
All in all, this is a boat speed of ten knots. However, the current conditions in the surrounding area, wind, waves, and currents are quite acceptable. If we continue, the boat should be able to run at a more ideal speed.