Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 97 Work in Li District ([-])

According to the pre-prepared plan, after entering the mountain, everyone changed the gun mode to the alert state, and at the same time sent sharp soldiers forward to investigate.The mountain is not steep. Along the road, you can see small pieces of land in the mountains, planted with rice that is about to be harvested, and there are traces of planting on the relatively gentle hillsides——the green forest is like a shedding blanket From time to time, patches of yellow are exposed - this is the barn planted by the Li people - this is a primitive agricultural method that is almost slash-and-burn.One or two scattered villages can be seen on the hillside in the distance.Because they had plenty of time, they were not in a hurry to hurry and watched the mountain scenery while walking.Although it is already autumn, Hainan is like summer in all seasons, and the mountains and flowers are still blooming, the vegetation is lush, and the scenery is particularly beautiful.Compared with the desolate scene of wild smoke and grass outside the mountain, it has a different flavor.Walking up a hill, everyone stood upright and looked around.Wen Desi couldn't help saying:

"What a great place."

"Compared to the two sides of the Wenlan River, the scenery is much more beautiful." Everyone said the same, wiping their sweat and pointing to the surrounding scenery

"What is this?" There is an extremely tall and straight tree on the hillside not far away. Among the lush trees, it has fallen leaves very conspicuously.

"This is kapok." Wen Desi said.As a person living in Guangzhou, it is impossible not to know the plants that are the city flowers of Guangzhou.

"Kapok, I know! The flowers are very beautiful. When I went to Panzhihua, I saw there were many." Mu Min said.

"Hehe, that's right. Panzhihua is named after kapok."

"Why do these trees shed their leaves? Trees in the south usually don't shed their leaves."

"It was originally a deciduous tree," Fa Shilu explained, "because its origin basically has two seasons of dry and wet seasons. Before entering the dry season, the leaves will be taken off to save water." Although he is An agronomist who also worked on plant protection.This aspect is relatively familiar.

"This tree is very useful," Fa Shilu continued, "and is a very good fiber material."

"Although good is good, it cannot spin cloth."

The fiber of kapok is much shorter than that of straw cotton, so it is not very suitable as a textile raw material.But it grows fast, the material is light and soft, the fiber is short and soft, no twist, the hollowness is as high as 86%, it is not easy to be soaked by water, strong pressure resistance, strong warmth retention, natural antibacterial, no moth, no mold, can be filled Pillows, life jackets.

Travelers have found many kapok trees sporadically along the Wenlan River, but this is the first time they have seen such a forest.If developed, it should be promising.

"Mr. Wen, I want to collect some samples." Fa Shilu asked for instructions.

"Fa Gong, tell Captain Lu about this—" Wen Desi said, "I'm just a team member, I don't have command authority."

"Okay, I forgot again." The agronomist smiled embarrassedly.Wen Desi's title of chairman always makes him forget this.

"Old Fa, you said that this kapok cannot be spun. Why did I hear that the Li nationality's cotton spinning technology has always been leading in ancient times? Even Huang Daopo learned spinning from the Li people in Hainan." Accompanying him It was Cui Yunhong who went to collect the samples, and he carried a lot of equipment on his back: a laptop, a transient electromagnetic instrument, a bolt tester, an ultrasonic tester... There is even a small hand-cranked generator for poverty alleviation in Africa—no way Who told these things to use electricity?While he was collecting samples, he also did some geological surveying by the way.

"Not all kapoks can't be spun." Fa Shilu carefully avoided the thorns on the trunk and pulled the measuring tape. "Some kapok varieties are acceptable, but the quality cannot be compared with herbal cotton. There are also some so-called kapoks that are actually It's Sea Island cotton."

"Sea Island cotton?"

"This is a high-quality long-staple cotton. It is produced in Central and South America. Because it was distributed in large quantities on the southeastern coast of the United States and its nearby islands, it is called Sea Island cotton." Fa Shilu explained, "Hainan Island has a similar cotton. The long-staple cotton is very close to this American sea-island cotton."

"I've seen cotton, it's very small, like grass, and it grows every year. How can it be like kapok?"

"Hehe, because cotton can be grown as an annual or as a perennial." Fa Shilu knew that in the original time and space, most people did not distinguish between five grains, and many people used wheat seedlings as leeks. It is not bad to have seen cotton "Cotton can grow into a perennial tree in a natural environment. It may be called kapok by mistake because it is the same as kapok, with cotton wool on the outer skin of the seeds. The raw material of the Li people in Hainan Island should be this kind of Perennial woody cotton." He continued, "I have seen some scattered cotton trees like this. It is quite common on the island. Our department is thinking about how to get cotton."

"Is this kapok?"

"It's ordinary kapok." Fa Shilu was a little regretful. If the sea-island cotton became a forest, it would be great: this kind of long-staple cotton can not only be used as worsted raw material, but also can be spun into a worsted high-count cotton cloth with a texture comparable to silk. It is also an indispensable cord material for the future tire industry.

"It can be used to make fire cotton." Zhang Bolin, who was on the sidelines to warn them, interjected, "To make fire cotton, as long as it is fiber."

"You can't say that--" Fa Shilu was talking, when he suddenly saw two or three people coming from a distance. They were not Han people in their clothes, but they knew they were Li people, so they quickly packed up their things and returned to the brigade.

Two soldiers came over and asked loudly at a distance.They are all wearing cloth shirts, but their lower bodies are wrapped in cloth strips like briefs, a bit like Japanese loincloths (this is a kind of clothing that Li men used to wear in the past).There is a hook knife across his waist-this is what every Li nationality man carried with him in the past, it is not only a production tool, but also a weapon-a crossbow arrow on his back.Lu Rong talked to them in Qiongzhou dialect for a while, and he knew that this place was already within a cave boundary, and the owner of the cave lived in a place called Nanan Village in front (this village is purely fabricated).

They were talking here, but the captives at the back started to stir up, regardless of the heavy salt bags on their bodies, they all rushed over. When they met each other, they were all excited and cried—it turned out that these two soldiers belonged to their village.Early this morning, a hunter reported to me that a strange-looking team had arrived. They were not many in number, and they were not officers.It is not a single or small group of Han traders.The owner of the cave was also the head of the earth house appointed by the Ming Dynasty government. He had the obligation to maintain local law and order, so he sent someone to check.

From the conversation, we know that out of the [-] Li soldiers sent by Bendong, five escaped.Now Li District is saying that a powerful pirate team has come to the sea, with powerful firearms.The small vendors from the Han District added more details to the story of the battle at Bairen Beach, and now almost everyone knows how terrifying the traversers are.

Knowing that the person who came was the "pirate" with the power of ghosts and gods, the two soldiers showed a look of fear. Lu Rong hurriedly explained that he was not a pirate, but a businessman, and he was fighting with the government and the army at Bairen Beach It is also imperative.This time I came to Li District, one is to return the eight captives, and the other is to do business.As he said that, Lu Rong opened a salt bag - the snow-white refined salt glistened in the sun.The power of the salt was really great. After licking it to confirm that it was really salt, the two soldiers seemed to run away.

Lu Rong ordered everyone to wait in place. If the information the security team got from the Li captives was accurate, the power of salt would be enough.Even so, everyone is still a little nervous, deeply afraid that the other party will take revenge if they come. With the firepower of more than 20 SKS rifles, even if there are 200 people, it is no problem, but if there is a conflict, it will be difficult to deal with the aftermath. If there are a few more casualties on your own side, it will be an irreparable loss.

Not long after, more than a dozen Li soldiers came, surrounded by a middle-aged man, dressed more elegantly than the naked soldiers, looking like traditional Li brocade, with pheasant feathers on their heads. It seems to be a headman or something.According to the captives, this is an "Aoya" in their cave (Note: Li dialect means "old man", and the general Li people used this name to refer to the upper-level leader of the Li people before liberation.), second only to Master Tushe. A big shot.

This "Aoya" could speak Qiongzhou dialect very well, so he came alone and walked to the open space on both sides, and first chopped the hook knife on the ground.

"What does this mean?" Lu Rong was a little nervous.

"It seems to mean that there is no hostility." Wen Desi remembered watching an Amazon rainforest adventure film in the past. When the expedition team encountered the natives in the forest, they also put the machete on the ground first to show their friendship. "Just do as usual. .” (Note: This is pure nonsense)

So Lu Rong also went out and put the machete on the ground.Not only was he extremely nervous, everyone in the team was sweating—he was only more than 50 meters away from the soldiers, and when the crossbow was fired, if it hit a place without the protection of the stab-proof suit, the poisonous arrow on the crossbow would be damaged. But see blood seal throat.

The two sides stood there talking for more than ten minutes, and then he came back and said helplessly: "He won't let us go to the village. They are willing to buy the salt, and he is willing to use what we want as a ransom for the captives."

What's the use of Wen Desi wanting to just go back.But the captain is Lu Rong, and his intervention in the decision-making seems to violate the command policy formulated by the executive committee.

So he still asked tentatively: "Let's talk about it again? How about some gifts—"

"Gift!" Lu Rong laughed, "I have resigned for more than a year, and I have forgotten all the contents of my bank." So they went back, and the two talked for a while.After a while, Lu Rong came back with a smile on his face:

"It's done, he promised to take us outside the village, but we can't enter the village. We can only trade outside the village. But he promised to let us meet the cave master."

The price of this transformation is a small paring knife.Although the fruit knife is not made of high-grade steel such as tool steel, it is still a steel knife, and it is completely incomparable with the rough iron hook knife in their hands.

It seems that commercial bribery works anywhere.

(End of this chapter)