Chapter 254: Shilu Investigation Record

Outside the Li village, there were large patches of wild bamboo forest. The exploration team asked the local Li people for help cutting down dozens of bamboo poles. They selected the thick ones and cut them into similar lengths, while the thinner ones were split into bamboo strips and twisted into ropes for binding the bamboo rafts. Assistant Wang couldn't hunt any pheasants, so he took out some of his share of white sugar and hired local carpenters to help make the rafts.

From the local Li people, they learned that upstream, as the terrain gradually entered the mountainous area, the river channel was quite rugged, often necessitating passage through shallow shoals and rapids. To facilitate passage, the bamboo rafts couldn't be made too large. The width of the rafts was controlled under 1.2 meters, similar to the simple bamboo rafts used in Hunan, Jiangxi, and other places. Each bamboo raft could carry five people, but because they had so much equipment, they ultimately constructed three. The carpenters in the stockade made bamboo stools and fixed them onto the rafts. As a finishing touch, they added a bamboo-strip roofed canopy to each raft—the sun here was very strong.

Building the bamboo rafts took less than a day. Early on the third day, Li Benqing's malaria was completely cured. Not only was his mind clear, but his appetite had also recovered. He Ping gave him the final dose to consolidate the cure.

Li Benqing was grateful beyond words to this group of strange Han people who had cured his illness, wishing he could give everything he owned in reward. This cold-and-hot disease flared up every year. Each time, it tormented him half to death for almost a month before improving. This time, he was fine after three days of medicine. The Han people also said it wouldn't relapse. Though skeptical, the immediate effect after taking the medicine was absolutely true.

It was just that apart from two machetes and a few crossbows, his family had nothing else. Li Benqing felt very embarrassed and insisted on going out to hunt some wild game to treat them, but Xiong Buyou stopped him.

"Wild game doesn't matter. We've delayed here for a few days and want to head upstream today. Can you help find a guide familiar with that area?"

"Go upstream?" Li Benqing was puzzled; even Li people rarely went to that place. If it was for gathering herbs, there were things on the upstream ridges, but they could also be gathered on the nearby hills.

"Yes, to Shilu Ridge. Do you know this place?" Xiong Buyou asked.

"Never heard of it." Li Benqing refused crisply. This made the exploration team suspicious. But according to Mu Min, this man wasn't lying—she had been a police officer for many years and could tell whether someone was lying.

Xiong Buyou didn't give up and continued to gesture: "There is a river at the foot of the mountain that flows into the Changhua River, called Shilu River—"

Li Benqing still shook his head.

Cui Yunhong thought of something: "Ask him if there are mountains with green stones here?"

The so-called green stone was copper ore—malachite. And the place name Shilu came from malachite. Because the local Li and Han people in Hainan were accustomed to placing modifiers after nouns when speaking, "Shilu" actually meant "Green Stone."

Shilu Ridge was first noticed not because of iron ore, but because of copper ore outcrops on the surface. Since the Qing Dynasty, people had been mining and stealing from it. It wasn't until 1935, when the Qiongya Industry Bureau sent people to investigate copper mines, that the richest mineral reserve in Shilu was discovered to be iron ore for the first time.

"Yes, yes," Li Benqing suddenly realized, "You want to go to Yayu Ridge!"

Xiong Buyou didn't know what Yayu Ridge was, but Cui Yunhong did. The somewhat vague textbook content suddenly became clear.

"Yes, yes, it's Yayu Ridge!" Cui Yunhong nodded repeatedly, thinking he was really muddled; the place name Shilu only started being used in the Qing Dynasty. This was still the Ming Dynasty's world.

Assistant Wang said, "Uncle, didn't you go to Yayu Ridge before?"

Li Benqing looked troubled. He pondered alone for a long time, making everyone anxious. However, Li Benqing spoke terrible Hainanese, and apart from Xiong Buyou, no one could really communicate with him.

After a long while, Li Benqing lowered his voice: "I'm afraid you shopkeepers aren't small peddlers, are you?"

Everyone was startled. Xiong Buyou smiled and said, "If not for business, what would we be doing coming to the Li districts?"

Li Benqing said, "You shopkeepers cured my illness, so I'm speaking a few extra words." He paused. "Leading everyone to Yayu Ridge is nothing; it's not far from here, and the road isn't difficult. Although I haven't been there many times, I still recognize the way. I just advise you: the gold and silver on Yayu Ridge are the ballast of Qiongzhou, protected by gods; they cannot be mined."

It turned out that rumors of treasures on Yayu Ridge had existed for many years. Even without rumors of gold and silver, the copper ore itself was extremely attractive. So every ten or twenty years, as long as the Li districts were quiet and peaceful, Han people would group together to go to Yayu Ridge to open mines. But no one had ever succeeded. They either lost their capital failing to mine gold and silver or suffered casualties from mine collapses, forcing them to abandon the effort. Over time, it was rumored that this mountain ridge was the great ballast of the island—a place of vital feng shui protected by gods.

After listening to Li Benqing's gossip, everyone realized that this Shilu Ridge had long been famous. It seemed remarks about Chinese people lacking pioneering spirit were pure nonsense. In an ancient society with low technological levels and blocked traffic, trekking hundreds of li into these wild mountains to open mines—how could a nation without adventurous spirit do that?

"We are not going to mine gold or silver; we just want to go to Yayu Ridge to take a look," Xiong Buyou continued to persuade. "We'll leave in a few days."

Li Benqing said, "I'll handle taking you there. Just please consider what I said, shopkeepers."

Assistant Wang didn't have these taboos and laughed: "Uncle, just take them there. When you come back, the shopkeepers will reward you with a few more jin of white sugar. You can use it to get a match for me, so I don't have to go to the Gui Long to sing and look for women every day!"

Li Benqing laughed: "You young kid, what nonsense are you talking? Not learning anything good!"

The "Gui Long" was a special building in the Li stockade. Several unmarried women in the same stockade would build a house by themselves at the edge of the stockade and sleep there at night. Men intending to find a spouse would go to the Gui Long every night to Lue Ya; if the woman was interested, she would let the man stay overnight.

Immediately, it was agreed that Li Benqing would lead the way to Yayu Ridge. As for remuneration, Li Benqing originally refused to accept any, so Cui Yunhong gave him a new hook knife, a bottle of white liquor, and a few jin of white sugar. Li Benqing liked them very much and accepted.

Considering his just-recovered health, the exploration team rested in the Li stockade for another day. They weren't idle; they roughly surveyed the resources around the Li stockade and drew a topographical map. In terms of resources, apart from the soap bean forest, a small-scale tin mine was also found nearby, but unfortunately, transportation was inconvenient and it had no mining value.

Early the next morning, the group took the bamboo rafts upstream. Assistant Wang stayed in the Li stockade to look after the goods and luggage they left behind. The group packed lightly, bringing only necessary equipment and camping tools. Li Benqing brought his own dried food and salt and carried a crossbow on his back. Mu Min curiously asked him if the arrows he carried were poisoned.

"No, the Upas tree is hard to find. Even if found, the local Han people aren't allowed to use it," Li Benqing gestured. The Han people he referred to were the officials in Changhua city.

Hearing that the Upas tree was hard to find, several camping enthusiasts felt somewhat disappointed. However, everyone was very interested in his crossbow and took turns examining it. The structure of this crossbow was very simple, and the effective range wouldn't exceed fifty meters. No wonder Li Benqing said it was mainly used for setting ground traps in places where wild beasts appeared. However, he rarely hunted with crossbow arrows—if he wanted to sell the fur, it wouldn't be valuable with holes pierced by bolts. Li Benqing hunted mainly by digging pits and setting various snares. The several hunting enthusiasts in the exploration team took turns exchanging relevant experiences with him on the bamboo raft. After most of the day, with speaking and gestures, they roughly understood each other. The relationship warmed up considerably.

Li Benqing caught quite a few animals. Jiang Muzhi, responsible for collecting biological data, soon learned from his descriptions that there were ferret badgers, otters, large and small civets, masked palm civets, and other animals with significant economic value locally. As for wild rabbits and wild boars, they were widely distributed. What surprised people most was that there were black bears locally.

"That thing is not to be messed with—" Li Benqing shook his head. "Runs fast, and climbs trees."

But this resource was useless to the transmigrators. They didn't need bear skin for hats, and the utilization of bear bile hadn't been put on the agenda. Comparatively, deerskin was more useful.

Li Benqing said there were two kinds of deer locally, one big and one small. The exploration team quickly figured it out: the big one was the Sambar deer, and the small one was the Muntjac. Both types had significant economic value.

Because there were rarely opportunities for forestry professionals to conduct field animal surveys, an old hunter like Li Benqing was the best subject for investigation. What was valuable was that he could describe the characteristics of every animal he hunted quite accurately, which made the transmigrators' judgment much easier.

Seeing them holding a notebook and constantly recording his words, Li Benqing was both surprised and proud. He couldn't figure out why these Han people valued the stuff he usually gossiped about when idle so much, even writing it down. This added mystery to their purpose.

Because it was the dry season, the water volume was not large, and the current was very gentle. Poling upstream with bamboo poles wasn't strenuous—only they often had to pass through rocky shoals where everyone had to exit the bamboo rafts to push them through. In some places where rocky shoals were exposed above the water, they even had to carry the bamboo rafts over to continue advancing.

With the upstream movement of the bamboo rafts, the exploration team carefully observed the changes in the main channel and side tributaries, constantly recording the surrounding topography and vegetation types. Trees were sparse on the banks, but shrubs and grass were dense. As the bamboo rafts passed, they occasionally startled birds and some unknown small animals in the grass. There were no signs of human activity on either bank—the Han miners who came for adventure that Li Benqing mentioned didn't leave many traces here.

Around three or four o'clock in the afternoon, the bamboo rafts finally arrived at the place known to later generations as Sanchahe Town. Of course, this place was currently still a desolate grassland. The water became very shallow, and the bamboo rafts scraped the sand and stones on the riverbed more than once. As for the Shilu River, this tributary of the Changhua River couldn't be navigated at all right now; it could barely cover a person's ankles.

The exploration team decided to abandon the boats and proceed on foot. Everyone worked together to drag the bamboo rafts ashore. According to Li Benqing, walking upstream along this river for another fifty or sixty li would get them there. Since it was getting late, everyone camped here to rest, preparing to set off early the next morning.

The exploration team lit a bonfire in the camp and burned a lot of Artemisia to smoke away mosquitoes. To prevent suspicion, the exploration team didn't take out overly conspicuous equipment. However, their matches, sleeping bags, and dried food still aroused Li Benqing's strong interest—especially the matches. Dinner was Grassland Series rations. Eating a rice biscuit for the first time, Li Benqing actually said it was very delicious. Everyone gave him a lot of their portions. Li Benqing made bamboo tube rice in return. With a little salt and lemongrass added, the taste whetted everyone's appetite.

At night, when they were about to sleep, they heard a suspicious roaring sound. Thinking of the black bear Li Benqing mentioned, many people became nervous. To ensure safe sleep, Cui Yunhong instructed everyone to have guns ready and light another roaring fire. They would take turns on duty, constantly adding large amounts of fuel—dry grass and small shrub branches were everywhere here.

The next day, they all rose at five, hurriedly ate breakfast, and hit the road again. They continued walking upstream along the river. Twisting and turning, relying on compass, map, and Li Benqing's guidance, they walked another fifty or sixty li. At sunset, they finally reached the foot of the mountain, where clear river water slowly flowed out from a valley ahead.

"This is Yayu Ridge," Li Benqing pointed out.

Cui Yunhong knew they had arrived. He found his compass and checked it against the setting sun. The needle pointed southwest. Looking in the direction of the needle, there was a reddish-brown peak. He nodded; this area should be the famous Hainan Shilu Magnetite Mine.

Everyone was excited—Shilu Iron Mine! The largest open-pit rich iron mine in China, with reserves of nearly three hundred million tons of magnetite averaging over 42 percent iron content! It was also associated with cobalt, copper, nickel, silver, sulfur, dolomite, and many other minerals. If not for the lack of coal here, Shilu would be a natural large-scale coal-iron complex base.

Cui Yunhong was dizzy with excitement and almost fell down. He was about to charge up the mountain with his equipment in one go, but everyone hurriedly stopped him, saying it was getting dark and climbing the mountain was unsafe; it wouldn't be too late to go tomorrow.

Immediately, they set up camp by the stream. The night passed without incident. The next day, Cui Yunhong led a five-man squad up the mountain. The rest remained to guard the camp.

Yayu Ridge wasn't high, and the mountain terrain wasn't steep. The overall vegetation on the hillside was still a savanna landscape, with large areas of thatch taller than a person. Although better than a tropical rainforest, climbing was still quite strenuous. Fortunately, Li Benqing, the old hunter, led the way; he would choose routes with sparser vegetation to advance.

(End of Chapter)