"What happened? Was there a shipwreck?" In order to avoid falling into delusions of being persecuted, Polu decided to ask first.
"He was traveling on an inland river route. Even if the boat capsized, with so many people, no one could swim to the shore? We think it's unlikely. He was either intercepted or attacked."
Polu looked incredulous: "What is that going on? Just that ship of junk ore, the price on the market is really not worth the freight, right? Who would be interested except us?"
"I don't know. I'm confused too."
The ore purchased by Hongshan is real scraps. It comes from the broken, impure, cracked, left over from cutting, small grains, and discarded crystal bases during mining. The quantity is very large, and the magic power of a single mineral is stored
It's so small that it can't be used without secondary processing.
To be honest, it is just a cement-like infrastructure material. Magic crystals as thick as an arm are indeed a first-class rare commodity. The ones commonly used are at least the size of a fingernail, and they can be sold for high prices, but mineral sand? Is this the case?
Will there still be robbers in the world who rob a ship of low-grade iron ore? Are they too hungry to be selective?
Unable to figure it out, Polu shook his head: "Anyway, let's go take a look first. It's best if there's nothing else to do. Just think of it as surveying the waterway, and then use our own ship to transport it back. This incident makes me feel that I'm being controlled by others, which is too uncomfortable."
Although I think it’s unlikely, you still have to take two boats with you when traveling far away. They are all new equipment, and the reliability is hard to say. This is not in the first line of Hongshan King Capital. If it doesn’t work, you can still walk back to find a tractor. I heard that there is a good one
A journey of several days would be completely lost if something breaks on the road. If you can still drag it back with two boats, can't you really rely on rowing?
"Keith! Isn't the ship finished yet?"
Polu shouted as soon as he entered the shipyard. He led a group of workers who had just been recruited from the processing workshop. Case, who was holding the rivet hammer, was frightened and at a loss.
"What...what's wrong? Aren't you in a hurry? The keel of the tugboat has just been riveted and part of the iron ribs fixed. The other parts haven't been started yet. It's such a big ship, even the support frame hasn't been set up yet."
"The ship that transported us ore has disappeared! Now we need to build a ship and take a look."
"Well, isn't it possible to use an experimental ship?"
"It's also going, but one boat isn't enough. Let's take a look at the waterway. If it's suitable, we can transport it ourselves, so we don't have to worry about it all day long."
"Just in time, the design has been changed! These people are here to help. You organize it, prepare the parts, and assemble them at the same time! This is a top priority now, the sooner the better!"
The new hull on the design is an 18-meter-long oval hull. The front of the hull is a protruding belly, which looks like a pufferfish from the side. The bottom of the hull is flat, and the fat hull is more than 4 meters wide. Look
He looks round and round-headed.
All this is to reduce its draft, which is only 1.1 meters. It can be opened even in a standard swimming pool. This time Polu learned the lesson and simply omitted the propeller structure. Since it is a tug, of course it is omnidirectional.
Retreat!
The power passage is from the linearly converged stern, and a wellhead is placed vertically into the water in an opening on the waterline. The opening is not directly immersed in the water, which greatly reduces the risk of water leakage and self-sinking. The omnidirectional propeller is composed of two layers
Driven by the sleeve shaft, the outer layer controls the direction, the inner layer transmits power, and finally the power channel is sealed with a cover plate. In narrow waterways, it can even turn around on the spot.
Worried that the power transmission would be attenuated, and considering the need to tow the ore barge, Polu frantically packed two longitudinal steam engines into the not-so-wide hull and directly pulled the corresponding transmission structure. Fortunately, the new boiler volume
It is not too big, and the cylinders can also be directly modified above the boiler to achieve the purpose of supplying energy to them. The layout of the 16 energy-concentrating panels took a lot of thought.
As the number of steam engines increases, the amount of steam emitted will naturally increase. Since we do not want to turn the engine room into a steamer, the waste steam must naturally be collected and discharged from the iron chimney in the center of the hull. The water pump in the bottom bin still exists, just in case.
Well. With Bolu's character, it's impossible not to be on guard.
Soon, Polu discovered a fatal problem: "Captain, I don't have anyone who can control these ships! Can you borrow some people?"
Leonardo scratched his head: "I'm afraid that's not possible. The place you went to this time is too far away. I can only go there in my personal capacity. Other combatants cannot leave Hongshan casually as part of an organization."
"Combatants? Are the attendants considered non-combatants? What about the reconnaissance team?" This sentence reminded Polu.
Leonardo slapped his thigh fiercely: "Yes! I'll send you some servants who can fight but haven't become regulars! Then this will be easy to handle."
Bolu followed the temptation: "Put them into the cooking class and let them go out on a boat to buy ingredients. By the way, bring the reconnaissance team with you and say they went out to train for survival in the wild. This way the paperwork will be stable."
After Tezier took his team members and a few carefully selected attendants to practice on the experimental ship for two weeks, the ore ship still did not come.
During this period, little Irene contacted the boat company many times. Not only did she not find the boat, but she found that more and more boats were missing. Summarizing it, basically all of them disappeared on the Southwest River, which is where Bolu planned to go.
place.
"Something's not right. We need to take someone with us when we go out. We're just going to do reconnaissance. Although Leonardo is on the boat, if we encounter someone we can't defeat or there are too many people, we'll turn around and run away." He thought in his mind.
The guiding ideology of this time.
Adhering to the principle of making a poor man rich, the tug that has been built has a 20mm twin-mounted cannon mounted on a gimbal on the column head on the front deck. There is also a steel plate shield in front. Under the cannon
There is a partition between the bottom bin and the engine room, where the cannon ammunition just manufactured on the production line will be brought.
The .50 Laoganma was unfortunately abandoned because the ammunition could not be replenished. However, semi-automatic shotguns can already be produced on a small scale. Most of them are stamped parts, which is quite convenient to make. The new single-head bullets are also
It was replenished and combined with the old shotguns, filling the lower decks of the two boats.
After several test voyages, Polu's anxiety grew day by day. The news that the reserves were somewhat depleted was the last straw.
"No wait! We'll leave tomorrow!"
Early the next morning, when Polu arrived at the pier, more than 20 people were already waiting on the pier.
"Tezier, your reconnaissance team is boarding the clipper!"
"Cooking class! Come over here and tug the boat!"
As if being stimulated by this title, in order to show that they could really fight, the attendants even refused to use the springboard and jumped directly from the dock onto the deck.
Hearing that they could go out and gain combat experience, the attendants started a fierce competition to grab these spots, showing off their talents.
In the end, the cooking class even forcibly expanded to 16 people. However, looking at their fierce appearance, it can be said that there is no trace of the temperament of a cook. They all only wore basic breastplates, held shotguns in their arms, and carried short knives at their waists.
, walked coldly into the lower cabin of the tugboat.
"Your best dishes are stir-fried meat on iron plate or big skewers on steel bars, right?" Polu secretly complained in his heart.
"Captain, why don't they look like new recruits? They have such serious temperaments?"
"They are nervous. Tezier's side are all veterans. What do you think they are doing?"
"...If I don't watch it, I'm afraid I'll get angry!"
This time Polu chose to set off in a new tugboat, so that if something goes wrong, it can be rescued. And Tezier led the reconnaissance team to drive an experiment that has been fully used, is less prone to problems, and the ship speed is faster.
Boat.
At the same time, there is another key factor: the tugboat has a double-story ship building, so at least everyone has a place to sit.
He looked back at the cabin behind him. Leah, little Irene and Zhu Yiwei...wait, why is she here! Sitting on a wooden chair with such a natural expression!?
She was staring out the window and turned back: "As a mage, I want to investigate the origin of the magic crystal. This will help my current research. Is there anything strange about it?"
"No, no, it's just that there is some danger this time. Do you want to reconsider?"
"No need, I still have the ability to protect myself."
He thought to himself: "I can't afford to offend anyone!"
Bolu had no choice but to nod. He turned around, pulled out a long sound from the whistle, and then pushed the joystick at hand. A whistle also came from the experimental ship, responding to Polu's departure signal.
After the tugboat at the back left the dock, the experimental ship moved forward. The two ships pushed through the water waves and sailed into the morning fog on the river.