Chapter 1920

Although Zhang Qianzhi works in the Ministry of Security, his work is mainly in the fields of intelligence analysis and case investigation. He has not performed many field missions in the past two years, and he does not know much about tracking and counter-tracking at sea. Moreover,

This accompanying mission itself was very relaxed, even a bit recreational. Zhang Qianzhi had always been very optimistic that there would be no security risks. He never thought that anyone would dare to do it in the waters near Sanya.

Follow the official fleet.

However, since the suspicious ship has disappeared from sight, Zhang Qianzhi believes that this situation is more likely to be a misunderstanding. Gai Liangcai originally thought that this was an additional security measure deployed by the Ministry of Security. Since Zhang Qianzhi has clarified that there was no

He was relieved about this incident and treated it as a coincidence.

After explaining the situation to Gai Liangcai, Zhang Qianzhi returned to the cabin and rested for a while, but somehow he was still thinking about the situation Gai Liangcai said. Usually when encountering this kind of situation, he would choose to trust his intuition.

, he got up and left the cabin again, and went to the deck to find the captain.

The captain of this high-end passenger ship is named Ding Xu, and he has been working for Haihan officials for several years. In the early years, he was mainly responsible for running the northern route, transporting refugees from Shandong, Liaodong and other places from north to south. In the past two years, Ding Xu

His physical condition had declined, and it was difficult for him to continue running long-distance routes. However, he did not want to change his route and go ashore, so he returned to Sanya and was responsible for running some relatively easy short-distance routes. The superiors believed that Ding Xu’s previous long-distance routes were used to transport people to Haihan.

He was a worthy official, a reliable person, and had rich sailing experience, so he was appointed captain of the new ship.

This arrangement for the Crown Prince of Joseon to take a boat trip around the island is the fifth mission since the boat was put into use. It can be imagined that Ding Xu's current job is much easier than the previous northern route. Moreover, this boat

Generally, the people responsible for picking up and dropping off are top people, so the route will be planned in advance by the Shipping Department. Ding Xu does not need to worry about it. If the weather conditions are not ideal, the sailing arrangement will be canceled directly. Basically, there will not be too much risk.

The work is easy, the income is high, and the risks are low. With Ding Xu's ability, it is difficult to find a better job. Therefore, he is quite satisfied with his current position and is very attentive to the few tasks. This

Although he received the temporary transfer order this time, he also made all preparations within the specified time limit.

If there was anything he felt dissatisfied with, it was that several crew members were out in the field and could not come back in time to carry out the task. He had to ask the higher-ups to send in additional people for emergency response. Of course, this was not a big deal.

The problem is that the crew members of a large ship come and go, and there are frequent personnel changes. Moreover, the emergency personnel are transferred from other seagoing ships under the Maritime Transportation Department, so there should not be any problems.

After Zhang Qianzhi found Ding Xu, he mentioned to him what Gai Liangcai had said before: "Did Captain Ding find a ship following us after it came out of Victory Port this morning?"

Ding Xu nodded and said: "Yes, it happened. I informed Captain Gai at that time, but he said to observe the other party for a period of time to confirm the purpose of the other party. Later, after passing Yacheng, I didn't see the ship again. I guess there should be no trace of it.

thing."

Zhang Qianzhi said: "Based on your experience, captain, did the ship behind disappear actively or passively?"

Ding Xu was stunned for a moment before he understood. He scratched his head and said, "It's really hard to say... If that ship was following us with peace of mind, it would most likely have disappeared passively. After all, our two ships were about to take off.

Ordinary seagoing ships really can’t keep up. I remember the southwesterly wind blew when we arrived near Yacheng today, and that wind helped us gain speed during that part of the voyage.”

This passenger ship and the escorting warship can both reach the upper limit of about ten knots under suitable sea conditions, while the ordinary Fuzhou ship can run six to seven knots which is the limit. If there is a gap in this speed with

The ship following behind widened the gap, causing the ship behind to disappear from sight. This is what Zhang Qianzhi refers to as "passive disappearance".

Of course, even if it disappears passively, it still cannot prove that the lucky ship that followed it in the morning was following this fleet. It may still be a coincidence caused by the same route. So even if Ding Xu gave the

response, but still did not completely resolve Zhang Qianzhi’s doubts.

Seeing Zhang Qianzhi's solemn expression, Ding Xu persuaded with a smile: "Why be nervous about this matter? This is our country's coastal waters. If anything goes wrong, a fleet will arrive within half a day, not to mention that it is just a civilian ship. It's just us.

This warship next to me can easily take on ten lucky ships. I'm afraid he will do something!"

Zhang Qianzhi makes sense when he thinks about it. It is basically impossible for a foreign armed fleet to sneak into such a place quietly, and the scale of the escort force is enough to deal with ordinary people. The most important thing is that with the Haihan sailing ship, it is impossible to sneak into it quietly.

At such a speed, ordinary civilian ships cannot catch up even if they want to do something. We are obviously in the mainland of Haihan, so why do we need to have so many worries?

Zhang Qianzhi nodded and said: "The captain is right. It seems that I have thought too much... By the way, how far are we from our destination?"

"Come on, we have passed Bitoujiao. The mouth of the river in front is the Wanglou River. It is almost forty miles away from Yinggehai!" This route is already very familiar to Ding Xu, and the scenery along the coast can be easily understood at a glance.

Know where you are.

Zhang Qianzhi silently calculated the time, looked up at the sky, and estimated that he should arrive at Yinggehai earlier than expected. He thanked Ding Xu for his hard work and went back to the cabin to rest.

About an hour later, the two ships sailed into the bay of Yinggehai one after another. Luo Shengdong, who had been notified by Sanya telegram in advance, was already waiting at the dock with a group of subordinates and more than a hundred people organized in advance.

Go up and welcome the arrival of Li Bo and his party.

Although this scene was not as grand as when Li Bo arrived in Sanya, considering that this is just a large salt field in Haihan, it is not bad to be able to achieve this level.

After getting off the ship, Li Bo had already noticed the presence of Luo Shengdong without any introduction. This local official of Haihan, who is said to be a former military attache of the Ming Dynasty, has a strong body, dark complexion, and his hair has been cut extremely short like the Haihan people.

It is also a Haihan-style double-breasted blouse, and on its feet is a pair of cowhide sandals made in Sanya. It looks very similar to the high-ranking officials of Haihan whom Li Bo had met earlier.

Luo Shengdong took the initiative to come forward and introduce himself to Li Bo. Li Bo could still hear the obvious local accent in the Haihan Mandarin spoken by him, which was probably difficult to correct.

"The prince is welcome to come to Yinggehai as a guest, but our place is small and the conditions are not as good as Sanya. The prince, please don't dislike it." Luo Shengdong worked as a private salt dealer for several years, and later became an official again and received official training.

His level of conversation has far surpassed that of the naval commander back then. Even if he was facing foreign dignitaries, he could still handle it with ease. Facing North Koreans who were dealing with him for the first time, Luo Shengdong still behaved in a low-key manner.

First take the initiative to point out the local shortcomings and see the other party's response before making next steps.

Li Pu responded: "Master Luo, you are too polite. I heard about it before I came down. This place is the largest salt field in the Haihan Kingdom and the largest salt field in the entire South China Sea. With such a big name, how can it be called a small one?

Where is the place? I came here specifically to broaden my horizons, Mr. Luo, please don’t hide your secrets!"

When Luo Shengdong heard this, he knew that the other party should have done some homework before coming. It was not that he knew nothing about Yinggehai. Since the development of the Yinggehai Salt Farm, it has continued to expand its production scale every year. Today, it produces

The amount of sea salt accounts for more than half of Haihan's national salt production. If Haihan had not built a number of salt fields in Shipu and Xiangshan, Zhejiang in the past two years, and expanded and upgraded some of the original salt fields, this proportion would have been

Maybe even two-thirds.

But even so, the status of Yinggehai Salt Field is still unbreakable, and its production capacity is not expected to be surpassed by salt fields elsewhere in the next few years. Therefore, this "number one" title will indeed still be on the door of Yinggehai Salt Field

Hanging for many years.

After Li Bo arrived here, he quickly discovered that there was no need to make a special trip to visit the salt field. From the dock where he docked to the coastline within his sight of the bay, it was basically all white and it was impossible to see clearly.

There were so many salt fields. This reminded him of his hometown for a moment. Whenever it came to the middle of winter, after heavy snow covered the ground, the wilderness would be a vast white scene like this.

Of course, the white in his hometown is snow water that will eventually melt, but the white here can be equated with wealth, which is completely different. However, Li Bo also has a problem that has been bothering him for a long time. Before going to Yinggehai Town

On the carriage, he took it out to Luo Shengdong.

"Your country produces so much salt every year, which should have far exceeded the needs of the people. Is all the excess sold abroad?"

"Does your country also want to buy cheap salt from our country? That is very convenient. It should be shipped quickly from Zhejiang." Luo Shengdong is not someone who is easily tricked. He did not answer Li Bo's question honestly.

It was a rhetorical question.

Li Bo actually didn't know the status of salt production and supply in his country. He really couldn't answer Luo Shengdong's question. He could only smile and said, "It seems that Mr. Luo is inconvenient to answer my question."

Luo Shengdong said: "The prince is joking. In fact, the salt exported by the Yinggehai Salt Farm is currently mainly sold to the Ming Dynasty through Guangdong, and the quantity is probably not as much as the prince thought."

Li Bo was dubious. He always felt that Luo Shengdong's statement seemed to be reserved, but he had no way to question it. After all, the information he knew about the Yinggehai Saltworks was only the number one title. He didn't know the specific details.

There is actually no concept of the output.

Luo Shengdong did have reservations, but he did not say this out loud. The amount of salt sold abroad by the Yinggehai Salt Farm has not increased significantly in recent years. Although low-price dumping is a good way to seize the market, if it continues

Adding the cost of transportation and storage manpower, there is not much profit to speak of. Therefore, Haihan's current approach is to establish jointly operated salt farms with other countries and produce and sell them locally to reduce channel costs. Although this is still

A share is given to the partner, but this can turn private salt into official salt in a high-sounding way, and then sell it on the market with great fanfare.

Haihan's salt farms in Zhejiang and other places have adopted this approach, reducing operating risks and channel costs, while gaining a stable market. Although the amount of salt exported by the Yinggehai Salt Farm has not increased, from the perspective of the entire industry,

The amount of salt produced and exported by Haihan is actually still increasing year by year. However, only people in the industry are aware of this change, and it is difficult for outsiders to collect relevant specific information.

In addition, there is another use that even Luo Shengdong is not sure about, and that is industrial salt. Industrial salt is one of the basic raw materials of the chemical industry. Many chemical products require salt as a raw material to produce. And seawater is mixed with

It contains a variety of elements, so the industrial value of sea salt is higher than that of lake salt and well salt. As one of the main sea salt production sites in Haihan, Yinggehai Salt Field has a considerable part of its output sent to Tiandu Industrial Zone.

The chemical plants there are processed into various industrial raw materials and industrial products.

Although Luo Shengdong knew where the salt was, he didn't know how it was handled. However, he had received confidentiality training and knew what to say and what not to say in front of outsiders, so he responded to Li Bo's question.

The answer said nothing about this special use.

In the eyes of laymen like Li Bo, salt is still only used for seasoning. It is impossible to imagine how many things Haihan can use salt to create that transcend the times. If it is just for eating, then Haihan has nothing to do with it.

It is necessary to build so many salt fields. As long as the production technology is upgraded on the basis of the original salt fields in the Ming Dynasty, the people's demand for salt can be met. Haihan invested a lot of manpower and material resources to develop and build salt fields and set up a salt industry. Maybe it did exist in the beginning.

There is a purpose of making money from private salt trading, but the long-term goal is to meet the production and development needs of industry, especially the chemical industry.

It is not far from the dock to the populated area of ​​Yinggehai County. As Li Bo had heard before, although Yinggehai is not a big place, its wealth is no less than that of a big city like Sanya.

The buildings here are obviously newly built in recent years, but there are almost no ordinary houses with yellow mud walls and thatched roofs. Most of the houses seen in the city are brick and tile houses of the same standard, and there are also independent houses, covering a large area.

The houses of large households are not as prosperous as a small county town should be.
Chapter completed!