Nangong Hou didn't know that Lin Ziran had already found oil before he decided to get kerosene, and in the past few days, he had sent people to circle all the places where the oil seedlings were.
That place was all officially abandoned land, and there was no farmland around it. It was very convenient to circle it by hand. I just recruited Wang Jinquan and bought all the land nearby.
The money from selling the land went around in circles and returned to Lin Ziran's hands in the form of military expenses. To put it bluntly, Lin Ziran didn't spend a dime to encircle this land.
During this time, he sent people to recruit local young people to circle the entire area to prevent outsiders from entering, and sent people to start digging wells near the oil seedlings to prepare for oil extraction.
Although the wells are currently being dug manually and no oil reservoir has been found, Lin Ziran is still somewhat confident.
The oil seedling is there. There must be oil underground. It's just a question of how many reserves there are. Lin Ziran doesn't expect too many reserves. Finding an oil field with small-scale reserves will be enough in the early stage.
Recently, Lin Ziran has sent people to inquire about the situation of whale oil in detail. Judging from the whale oil purchased by Qingshan Trading Company, the price they purchased from the county town is 70 yuan per barrel, which is the wholesale price.
The retail price is about 80 yuan per barrel. It can be said that the price is very expensive. Even rich people cannot afford it. Many ordinary families are reluctant to light a lamp at night.
When the time comes, I will lower the price of kerosene a little, and as long as the wholesale price in the county is less than 70 yuan, I won't have to worry about the market.
This also means that as long as you can produce a few barrels of oil a day, you can generate sales of thousands or even tens of thousands in a month.
But how much does kerosene cost?
Very low. According to their estimates, even for the current small-scale manual mining and refining, the production cost of a barrel of kerosene will never exceed ten yuan. If it is mass-produced in the future, the cost will be even lower.
.
Huge profits, definitely huge profits!
After getting out the kerosene, Lin Ziran stopped talking to that lunatic Nangong Hou and asked him to fiddle with the perpetual motion machine. He ran to You Miao again.
In the morning, news came that an artificial oil well they dug directly near the oil seedlings was already producing oil.
Lin Ziran arrived at the place and took a look, only to see a large well several meters long and wide. Looking down, it was seven or eight meters deep. The bottom of the well was already dark, and oil had obviously seeped out.
Lin Ziran knew something was going on after just one glance, and immediately said: "Keep digging and dig out the oil spring. If you dig it out, you will be rewarded!"
Because there is no mechanical equipment, wells are dug by hand in the most primitive way, so it is naturally impossible to dig too deep. However, the oil layer here should be very shallow, otherwise there will be no oil seedlings, let alone digging.
You can see oil seeping out after seven or eight meters.
Relying on slogans alone is not enough. Lin Ziran made the choice on the spot to give extra meals to the young men digging wells, and give each of them a piece of meat!
After inspecting the oil side, Lin Ziran returned to Qingshan Town and continued to work on his distillation tower and other processes for refining oil.
It has to be said that although Nangong Hou seems to be out of place, his abilities are really good and his hands-on ability is very strong. In order to process some parts, he even built a machine tool directly...
While Lin Ziran was struggling with this, Hao Ren once again brought his baggage team to Qingshan Town. This time, Lin Ziran did not personally take people to escort him. Now he was busy and had no time to engage in armed training.
Let Luo Mazi go over with a row and mean it.
But what he didn't expect was that the baggage team had just set off in the morning, and in the afternoon he saw Luo Mazi running back with people.
This time he came back and shouted: "Sir, it's not good..."
Damn it, it’s this sentence again, it’s been said so many times, Lin Ziran hates this sentence the most now.
However, seeing the panic on Luo Mazi's and others' faces, he still asked: "What's wrong? Aren't you taking people to escort the supplies?"
Luo Mazi said: "The baggage train was attacked..."
Upon hearing this, Lin Ziran paused and then stood up: "What's going on? Why did they attack? How dare those bastards cause trouble on our ground?"
Luo Mazi said with a mournful face: "It's the Guang'an rebels!"
When Lin Ziran heard the words "Guang'an rebels", he immediately had a bad feeling: "Didn't it say that the Seventh Regiment had already penetrated hundreds of miles into the hinterland of Guang'an? Why are there still Guang'an rebels here in Qingshan Town?
Tell me carefully what’s going on!”
Luo Mazi said: "According to your instructions, the young leader and Master Hao went north together, but halfway there they were attacked by the Guang'an rebels. There were more than two hundred of them!"
Lin Ziran glanced at Luo Mazi, then looked at the more than a hundred people neatly behind him: "Did they fight?"
Luo Mazi shook his head: "The rebels are coming with ferocious force. When Xiao Xiao saw something bad, he immediately came back with his men!"
Lin Ziran continued to ask: "Where are Master Hao and the others?"
Luo Mazi said: "I don't know, we were walking in a hurry and didn't pay attention to them!"
Seeing Luo Mazi like this, and then seeing that Luo Mazi had brought back more than a hundred people, no one was missing, Lin Ziran couldn't guess what was going on. It must be Luo Mazi who came out when he saw the Guang'an rebels.
He immediately ran away with his men and sold Hao Ren and others.
It's not that he thought Luo Mazi was wrong to do what he did. The enemy's current priority was to protect himself, and a bandit who betrayed his teammates without understanding was not a good bandit.
However, this also depends on the situation!
There are estimated to be tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides fighting on the Guang'an front line. If there is a problem with this baggage train in his Qingshan Town, leading to unstable frontline logistics, Lin Ziran's small body will not be able to bear it if he is photographed with a random board.
And if things get serious, your identity will be exposed easily.
After waving his hand to Luo Mazi to shut up, Lin Ziran called over Wu Dajiang, the deputy platoon leader of the first platoon, and asked him in detail what happened.
Wu Dajiang is an honest man, he doesn't say anything in front of Lin Ziran.
According to his description, their group was intercepted by about two hundred Guang'an rebels at noon. At that time, Hao Ren ordered the entire army to form a formation to resist, but Luo Mazi ordered to retreat.
Then more than a hundred people just ran back in confusion.
As for Hao Ren and the others, they had already used car formations to defend themselves when they retreated, and now they are probably trapped in a tight siege.
Damn it!
Lin Ziran doesn't know whether to say Luo Mazi is good or bad now. If you say he is bad, he knows how to conserve his strength.
You say he's okay, this is not the time to conserve your strength, the consequences of losing the baggage will be even more serious.
If the consequences of losing these baggage hadn't been too serious, he himself had sent old bandits to rob them some time ago. With Hao Ren's escort team of more than 50 people, as long as they were arranged properly, it wouldn't be a problem to rob them.
But Lin Ziran still didn't do it, just because he, Lin Ziran, knew.
Stealing baggage can bring temporary pleasure, but the boss will make him unhappy for the rest of his life!
Considering that there is no use for anything else, it is better to send troops to rescue the baggage first.