Winter goes and spring comes, the South Ocean is filled with blue waves and the sea and sky are the same. A fleet of three three-masted hard sailing ships is sailing at this time, almost facing the southeast wind and moving towards the southeast.

The blue sky and white clouds are bright, the sun is shining, and the flags flying on the masts of sea ships indicate that this is a fleet of ships affiliated to the Nanyang Trading Company, and their direction is several miles away, and it is an island and reef.

Several reefs exposed to the sea surround a small island, as if stars were arching the moon.

The water level in the sea area where the islands and reefs are located is shallow and the deeper draft is too close, there will be a risk of stranding. Therefore, the three sea boats slowly lowered the sails, which gradually slowed down the speed of the ship.

On the first ship to serve as the flagship, Lin Chengyu put away the thousand-mile mirror and watched the crew move the boat on the deck out of the ship, slowly lower it, tighten the backpack, overturn the side of the ship, climb down the sea boat along the rope net that is made of a ladder, and sit on the boat berthed beside the sea boat.

Several crew members boarded the boat one after another, then rowed the boat together, rowed the boat towards the island. The other two large sea boats also laid down a small boat, and the target of the boat was also the island ahead.

The waves were rising one after another, and the boat was bumpy. Lin Chengyu held the boat with one hand and picked up the straw hat and put it on himself. Then he tied the hat rope and looked at the island ahead with interesting interest.

This island is not big, but it is the only large island among the island reefs. It is not unfamiliar to the crew. Because this island reef is located on the sea surface hundreds of miles southeast of the Tuen Mun Sea, most of the sea ships traveling from north to south will pass through nearby waters.

The island and reef in front of you are located on the east (south) of the Tuen Mun Sea, so it is also called "Tongsha".

Therefore, the only island in the Dongsha Islands and Reefs group is called "Dadongsha" by fishermen, or based on its shape like a waning moon, it is called "Crescent Island".

Fishermen generally do not go deep into the ocean when going out to sea to fish, but when they are not careful, they often berth on Dadongsha (Creams Island). Although this island is not big, digging wells on it can produce fresh water. It is an important fresh water supply island for fishermen.

Now, Lin Chengyu and his group are about to land in Dadongsha, but they are not here to collect tamsui.

The boat is getting closer and closer to the island. Lin Chengyu can see the dense coconut forest on the island with his naked eyes, and a large number of seabirds are hovering over the island.

The number of seabirds is so large that there are many birds flying up and down above the ship.

From time to time, he "scrolled" and left a "gift" to the ship and crew.

It was yellow and white bird shit, which fell on people's clothes, leaving traces of shit. The crew members were most annoyed by bird shit because they often made the deck of the ship mess, and then everyone had to clean it.

It's okay to wash the deck. If bird shit falls on the mast and canvas, it's very troublesome to clean it up. If possible, everyone wants to pinch their noses and pretend that they haven't seen it.

However, the Nanyang Trading Company's regulations are very strict. All ships in the direct fleet must be kept clean at any time. Therefore, the captains of each ship will arrange for crew members to brush the deck regularly to clean the hygiene, so the ubiquitous bird droppings are very annoying.

Not only do the crew of the merchant ship hate bird droppings, but the fishermen who go out to sea don’t like bird droppings, because fishermen all think that being hit by the feces pulled by seabirds will bring bad luck.

There is even a saying that this may be a sign made by sea birds for sea monsters, indicating their prey: sea monsters will first eat people who fall into the water with bird dropping marks on them.

Because they don’t like bird droppings, the fishermen berthed on the island when going out to sea. Even on cloudy days, they will wear straw hats to block the bird droppings from the sky. Now the crew members who row near Dadongsha are no exception.

As the ships gradually approached the island, more and more seabirds were circling above their heads. The hats they wore were already "scared" on them, and Lin Chengyu could already smell the faint stench coming from his head.

Above the sea, many reefs and islands are the habitats and destinations of seabirds, and Dadongsha is no exception. Lin Chengyu has been traveling boats in the South China Sea all year round, so it is no wonder that this is not surprising.

There is a simple trestle on the beach beside the island. The crew members leaned the boat against the simple trestle. Several soldiers who had been waiting for a long time helped the crew tie the boat up.

The group went to the island and came to the coconut forest, but saw that many men on the island were waving their pickaxes and digging the ground.

As an "observer", Lin Chengyu is the leader of the landing team. He was ordered by the company to conduct on-site observation of the Dadongsha that is being exploited to see what the "shouting" that the company is keenly paying attention to.

The straw hat on his head exuded a faint fishy smell. Lin Chengyu didn't care about so much. Looking at the seabirds stacked under his feet, he asked hesitantly: "Is it a stone so hard?"

"No, this is a stone formed by seabirds for years. It is not a coral fragment or an ordinary stone,"

The person in charge of Dadongsha exploration enthusiastically introduced that, afraid that Lin Chengyu would not believe it, he knocked a stone-like stool from the ground, broke it, spread it in his palm, and explained to Lin Chengyu:

"Seabirds eat small fish in the sea. There must be fish bones in the feces and feathers. Please see here..."

"This island is home to a large number of seabirds, and a large amount of bird droppings fall every day. For thousands of years, the years have long been weathered, piled up together and condensed into stones..."

"Although the weathered stool cannot be seen, but..."

The person in charge asked someone to bring a few pieces of gravel that didn't look like bird droppings, and then licked it a few times in front of Lin Chengyu: "Since it's a stool, there's always a smell, which is not something that ordinary stones have."

Seeing the other person licking the seabirds sleeping in the stool, Lin Chengyu didn't feel nauseous and walked towards the depths of the island. Seeing so many weathered seabirds sleeping in the island, they were piled up on the ground and felt like they were in a cesspool.

At the end of last autumn, the Maritime Bureau suddenly became concerned about the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. It is said that they became interested in the possible seabirds on the islands, which made everyone wonder:

There are many islands and reefs in the Nanyang Sea, and some of them do have a large number of sea birds hanging around for a long time. This is common sense. The Maritime Service did not know before, but why did they suddenly care about it after so many years?

Because of this reason, Nanyang Company quickly organized manpower and began to investigate which islands in the Nanyang waters have more birds in Shanghai and are suitable for large-scale "mining".

After a busy winter, now just after spring, the company has determined several islands, especially Dadongsha, because there are many seabirds here and are close to Guangzhou, so transportation is relatively convenient.

The sea ship that set sail from Panyu entered the ocean through Tuen Mun and sailed directly east (south) for a few days, and could reach the Dadongsha. It would not take too long to return with sea birds.

The Maritime Bureau’s requirement is to find islands that can be mined as veins, so as to obtain a large amount of "ores" such as seabirds.

Such a big fight is said to be because of this kind of permaculture that can be used to fatten the fields.

Lin Chengyu felt a little unbelievable about this. He knew that feces could make the field rich, but the fertility of this kind of seabird that had long been weathered into stones might have been gone.
Chapter completed!