Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 240 Hard-earned Diesel

Seeing Wukanbei's angry expression, Meiergua and the others quickly asked, "Brother Wukanbei, do you also have a grudge against the red-haired man?"

"They killed my wife and children!"

After hearing this, Meiergua couldn't help sighing, and reached out to pat Wukanbei's shoulder.Four years ago, his eldest son also died in a fight with the red-haired man.It wasn't just him, the six of them, Sembakur, also had family members who died at the hands of the red-haired man.

Liu Sheng said to Wukanbei at this time: "Tell them, lead us to find the red-haired man, and I can give them ten steel axes."

Wu Kanbei looked up at Liu Sheng with a grateful look on his face.The reason why Wukanbei joined Beihai Town at the beginning was mainly because of the oath that Liu Sheng made before his hospital bed.

After listening to Wukanbei's translation, Meiergua thought for a while and said, "Although you have many people, I don't think you can win. The red-haired people are all strong and burly, and they have fire-breathing iron pipes. Just now When I came in, I looked all the way, you guys are too thin." He paused and shook his head.

Zhao Xin understood what Meiergua meant. Although there are more than 3000 refugees here, most of them are thin and short, and their physical fitness is really poor.

It is said that when these Henan refugees first got off the boat, no matter whether they were men or women, they all had dark faces, malnourished, and there was no light in their bumpy eyes.After a few months, although these people have had enough food for a period of time, with Beihai Town's current ability, they can only make them full, and it is impossible to have a comprehensive nutrition.

In the late eighteenth century, China's population had exceeded the 701 million mark.According to the data recorded in "The Unification of the Qing Dynasty", at this time, the national arable land area was more than 2.45 million hectares, and the per capita arable land area was only [-] mu (the grain output was less than [-] catties, and then considering shelling, loan repayment, tax payment, etc.) Factors, the grain that finally fell into the hands was less than [-] catties).According to the level of agricultural productivity and taxation of tenants in this era, four mu of land is the warning standard for supporting a person.If it is lower than this standard, it can only struggle with poverty and death.

And that's just data for one person.In this era, most Chinese peasant families did not even have four acres of self-cultivated land, and they had to rent land from landlords to make a living.

To put it simply, physical fitness depends on nutrition, and nutrition depends on unit grain output and per capita arable land area.

Zhao Xin smiled, and said to Wukanbei: "Go and call your company commander." It's useless to explain any more. For a native like Meiergua, everything can only be said with strength.The physical fitness of the refugees is not good, but the nutritional level of the soldiers is completely guaranteed.The strength of two companies is enough to fight hundreds of Tsarist Red Hairs!
Not long after, the company commander of the guard arrived.After seeing the ceremony, Zhao Xin said to him: "Transfer a squad to gather at the south guard post. Set up a few targets 100 meters away, and show our friends a firepower demonstration. Also tell our people, don't shoot when the gunshots ring out. Panic, what should I do?"

After the guard company commander left, Zhao Xin smiled at Meiergua and the others and said, "Friends, please, let's go and have a look together."

When Zhao Xin and Liu Sheng stood up from their seats, Meiergua realized just how tall they were.With his 1.6-meter stature, the top of his head can only reach Zhao Xin's shoulders; as for Liu Sheng, let's not mention the embarrassing thing!

The seven Kuyeka people who were confused followed Zhao Xin and Liu Sheng to an open area in the south of the residential area. At this time, there were already five targets standing 100 meters away.A dozen migrant workers were walking towards the target carrying several large logs. These logs were to be erected behind the target to stop stray bullets.

Although the soldiers of the guard company are not considered recruits, they must also take good protection to avoid stray bullets.Hitting the wild beast is nothing, but if you hit a Fiyaka native in the ass, the account will be difficult to settle.

After ten minutes, when everything is ready.Liu Sheng didn't wait for Meier Gu to ask questions, and then gave the order to prepare for shooting.Five soldiers walked to the shooting position, first pulled the bolt to expose the magazine, and then took out the magazine containing ten rounds of bullets and pressed them into the magazine. , Pull the recoil machine, the bullet is loaded.

"Report, ready to shoot!"

The squad leader shouted loudly: "Kneel down and get ready for shooting!"

At this time, the five soldiers stood upright with their left legs, bent their right legs back, and aimed their guns at the same time.

"Open the insurance!"

"Start shooting!"

"Bang! Bang!"

When the first gunshot sounded, Sembakur and the other six lay on the ground with their heads in their arms, and their bodies were wet, and they all peed out of fear!Meiergua's face also turned pale, his bladder tightened, and he almost couldn't hold it back.

By the time the shooting was halfway through, the six of Senbakur were so frightened that they could not back up, squatted on the ground, covered their ears and shouted: "Vulcan spare your life! Bear God spare your life!" But in the background of the bursts of gunfire Next, their yells were ignored by others.

When the ten bullets were fired, Meiergua covered his ears and retreated to Sembakul and the others, but his face was flushed.I thought that the fire-breathing iron pipes of these people are much more powerful than the red-haired man!

After the five soldiers got up to check the magazines and left in line, Liu Sheng asked Wu Kanbei to take the seven Meierguas to the target to have a look.Everyone tremblingly walked up to the targets, only to see that the five targets made of planks had been battered to pieces, and on the logs behind them, bullet holes the size of fingers were all over the surface.

"Vulcan! You are the messengers of Vulcan!" Dang Meiergua said to Zhao Xin and Liu Sheng as he walked back to the shooting position with a look of astonishment.

After listening to Wu Kanbei's translation, Liu Sheng looked disdainful, while Zhao Xin said calmly to Wu Kanbei: "Didn't they say they want to see the boat? Take them to the river mouth to have a look."

Wukanbei, who is well aware of the Fayaka people's beliefs, already understood at this time that Zhao Xin wanted to use Beihai Town's powerful firearms and mountain-like boats to frighten the opponent.

In fact, for Wukanbei, he was also shocked by these at the beginning.Although he had joined the army for a few months, apart from the rifle in his hand, he didn't know what happened to the other ships and tractors.In Wukanbei's view, these things are only possessed by gods; so no matter whether it is Zhao Xin or Liu Sheng, they are all like gods in his eyes.

At this time, in the residential area, the vigorous construction of houses continued; and in the oil refining workshop, the workers began to be busy after breakfast.

Hundreds of workers wearing gas masks first used large iron spoons to fill the crude oil from the oil pit into long wooden boxes prepared in advance.Because the gaps between the boards of these wooden boxes are covered with a layer of plaster, so there is no need to worry about leakage for the time being.Then the workers carried the wooden boxes full of oil in twos and poured them into the oil storage pool tens of meters away.

When the oil storage tank was half installed, Zhang Bo started an oil pump, and the viscous crude oil was pumped into the reaction kettle in the kiln through the hose inserted in the oil storage tank.

The top of the kiln is provided with a smoke exhaust port and an oil outlet, and a thermometer and a pressure gauge are installed on the side of the reaction kettle to monitor the temperature and pressure in the tank.There is a circular airtight hatch on the top of the iron tank. Open the hatch and you can see the oil delivery in the iron tank. There is also a sealed hatch under the iron tank. , open and drain the oil residue after cracking, that is, asphalt and heavy oil.Zhang Bo felt that there was a chance that these waste residues could be used, so he planned to dig another big pit for storage.

When he saw that the crude oil in the reactor was less than half, Zhang Bo ordered someone to turn off the oil pump.Then, a migrant worker poured a bag of zeolite that had been prepared earlier into the sealed hatch, and stirred it with a long iron rod so that it could be evenly distributed on the bottom of the tank (the purpose of adding zeolite is to prevent the liquid from violently rolling and bumping.) etc. When everything is done, the hatch is closed and the bolts are tightened.

It is said that oil is less dense than water, sticky and thick, and has no definite melting point and boiling point.These oil refining kilns built by Zhang Bo are actually enlarged versions of laboratory stills.

At this time, cold river water had been introduced into the cooling box, and Zhang Bo immediately ordered his men to light the kiln, and the first oil refining kiln in Beihai Town finally started to operate.

As the temperature of the furnace became higher and higher, a large amount of charcoal was thrown in, and the crude oil in the reactor began to gradually atomize and crack.Zhang Bo stared intently at the thermometer and pressure gauge outside the reactor, and kept ordering his men to add charcoal.After about an hour, when the temperature on the thermometer exceeded 200 degrees and approached 250 degrees, Zhang Bo ordered someone to open the valve of the oil outlet pipe at the top of the reactor.

At this time, there was a whistling of gas from the end of the oil outlet in the distance, and it sounded a little seeped.After a while, a drop of pale yellow liquid finally flowed out.

"My lord! It's oily!" A worker in charge of observation rushed to Zhang Bo and shouted.Hearing this, Zhang Bo quickly ran to the oil outlet, dipped his hand in the transparent liquid, rubbed it with his fingers twice, and then put it on the tip of his nose to smell it.

At this time, Zhao Xin, who had heard the news, also came over, squatting beside Zhang Bo wearing a gas mask, and asked in a muffled voice, "How is it?"

"No problem!" He turned to several workers and said, "Hurry up and connect the hose and steel pipe."

Upon hearing this, several workers quickly connected a hose connected to the oil storage tank to the oil outlet pipe, and tied them tightly with wire.

Zhao Xin let out a long breath through the mask, thinking that it was really hard work!For today's diesel oil, several months of preparations have been made, and thousands of people have traveled across the ocean. It is really not easy!But everything is worth it, at least I don't have to spend tens of millions to buy oil every once in a while.

"Does this thing need desulfurization? Don't all the gasoline and diesel we use over there have to be desulfurized?"

Zhang Bo said dissatisfiedly: "Mr. Zhao, this is for ships. If you can use diesel oil, you will eat high-priced food! And desulfurization? Is there any national standard you plan to set?"

Zhao Xin was speechless after being told, and he thought the same, even without desulfurization, this is better than the quality of marine heavy oil.It is said that heavy oil and asphalt are the things that precipitate to the bottom during the cracking reaction of crude oil, which are incomparable with diesel oil!
Zhang Bo said to Zhao Xin at this time: "I won't chat with you anymore. Once the fire is turned on, you can't stop it, or the asphalt deposited below will solidify. I have to keep an eye on the temperature, otherwise once it exceeds 350 degrees, it will not be diesel!"

While talking, he walked to the cooling water tank, stretched out his hand to check the water temperature, and continued to instruct the workers behind him: "After a while, the water in the water tank will feel a little warm, so open this valve to let cold water in, and at the same time open this The valve drains the previous water. When the water is cold to the touch, it will stop waterproofing and water ingress. Got it?"

The worker didn't understand the reason behind this, but he had fully mastered the task of draining and releasing water these days, so he couldn't help nodding his head in agreement.

Now that there is no problem with the trial operation, the next step is to burn a large amount of charcoal to prepare for the ignition of several other earthen kilns.While calculating the amount of remaining charcoal, Zhang Bo shook his head, thinking that it would be nice if there was coke.

Zhao Xin patted the dust off his body, got up and looked at the billowing smoke and dust from the top of the earthen kiln, and then saw the migrant workers who kept transporting charcoal to the earthen kiln, thinking that this is too unfriendly!All good trees have been cut down to burn charcoal, alas!Zhao Xin shook his head and left the refinery site with his hands behind his back.

On the other side, when Meiergua and others walked to the mouth of the Oha River with Wukanbe and a squad of soldiers from Beihai Town, the seven people saw the Thunderbolt parked in the lagoon without Wukanbe pointing it out.Meiergua suddenly took a deep breath, and looked at the huge mountain-like boat in the distance with a dazed expression.

"What did I say? Sea God! They are the messengers of Sea God!" Sembakur suddenly jumped up, waving his arms, and shouted excitedly. "Who said they were Vulcan just now?"

"It's whatever you say it is!" The other five scumbags looked at each other helplessly.That big boat looks bigger than a hundred whales, it seems that it must be the messenger of the sea god.

Meiergua was extremely excited at this time, with a strange look in his eyes, he danced to the thunder horn in the distance, and babbled and sang prayers.

But Wukanbei was shocked the day before yesterday, and he was thinking about the red-haired man in the west.When Meiergua finished singing, he asked: "Brother Meiergua, can you take us to find the red-haired man now?"

"No problem, no problem! You take me to meet Sea God and Bear God first."

"What?!" Wu Kanbei blinked and said to himself, I am so goddamn!
When Meiergua and others saw Zhao Xin again, they bowed and saluted at a distance of seven or eight meters.Zhao Xinxin said that he had the same attitude when he came back from watching the boat, was he shocked?

"The Messenger of the Sea God! Although I, Meirgua, am a Keratan, my people are few and far between. We are a flock of wild geese without a head. My people and I are willing to join you at your feet. I beg you to help us return to our hometown , Beat the red-haired man!" After finishing speaking, Mei Ergua imitated the scene he saw when he met the Manchu officials in Delengen Wooden City, knelt down and kowtowed.When Senbakur and the others saw it, they quickly kowtowed along with them.

"Get up!" How did you say that? It's not Chinese New Year yet!Zhao Xin hurried over to help Meiergua up, he turned to Wukanbei and asked, "What is he talking about?"

When Zhao Xin heard Wu Kanbei's explanation, he almost laughed out loud.

At noon, Meiergua and the others finally ate the big white steamed buns from Beihai Town.Because the estuary of the Oha River is full of oil pits and there are no wild animals, so Zhao Xin and the others eat canned meat or vegetables these days, and they are almost vomiting.

But this is a rare delicacy for Meirgua and the others. The large pieces of beef and pork with white fat make their intestines and brains full.Sembakur shook off his cheeks and ate fiercely, killing ten big steamed buns and four cans of meat in a row, and finally touched his swollen belly and said to Wukanbei that he must kill a deer as a gift someday.

　Don’t underestimate the stray bullets in the shooting range. The instructor once said during the military training in college that when someone shot, the muzzle of the gun was raised too high. As a result, the bullet flew over the earth wall behind the shooting range and hit an old farmer 1000 meters away. butt.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)