On Chiyu Island, Li Zhi's naval captain Lu Hu pinched his nose and jumped off the boat and landed on the island. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The island is fifteen miles long and eight miles wide, with a bay in the middle. There is no fresh water on the island, and there is no flat terrain suitable for growing food. The narrow island is densely packed with all kinds of seabirds, and every step you take can startle several birds.

Shi Dingping, the captain of the First Fleet beside Lu Hu, walked and walked, and stepped on bird droppings on his leather boots. He was a little disgusted and said, "Captain, this island really stinks, this place is a dung pit, right?" I've never been to work in such a smelly place. ”

Lu Hu pinched his nose and laughed, saying, "This is a treasure island!" Grandpa Guo specially asked me to take a look. ”

After walking a few steps and wiping the sweat on his head, Lu Hu said: "Grandpa Guo is really a god, and he even knows that there are such islands thousands of miles away. ”

The two of them walked around the island with their noses pinched, and gradually reached the hinterland of the island and climbed a hill.

There is no difference between the mountain and the mountain, there is bird droppings everywhere, and when you step on it, you will stick to it. I don't know how many hundred years of guano have been piled up, and the lower layer has turned into black guano soil, covering all the rocks on the hill and softening the lines of the whole hill.

Lu Hu pinched his nose, pointed to the bay in the distance and said, "Shi Dingping, how about we build a small wharf in that bay?" ”

Shi Dingping shook his head and said: "The water there is shallow, so you can only take small boats, and big ships can't be moored." ”

Lu Hu was a good-natured person to his subordinates, and when he saw that his opinion was overturned by his subordinates, he was not angry, but just asked, "Then where do you think it is better to build a dock?" ”

Shi Dingping pointed to a piece of sea in the north and said, "Then it seems to be deep, let's go over and take a look!" ”

Lu Hu said hello and followed Shi Dingping to the north. After walking ten miles to the northernmost point, the two searched for a long time on the coastline, and really found a deep reef shore.

Shi Dingping put his face into the seawater and looked at it, looked up, and said, "Chief, the water here is indeed deep, and you can rely on a big boat." ”

After saying this, Shi Dingping spat out the seawater in his mouth and scolded: "The seawater on this island has a smell of bird droppings, which is really disgusting!" ”

Lu Hu laughed, took off his clothes, and jumped into the sea with a pop.

Lu Hu's water quality is excellent, and he dived in the water for a long time before he surfaced. Surfacing the surface of the sea and wiping the sea water on his face, Lu Hu said loudly: "You are right, the coastline here is straight and deep, and with a little construction, our big steamer can directly dock." ”

Shi Dingping hurriedly pulled Lu Hu up.

Lu Hu was soaked, and he was not in a hurry to get dressed, so he only wore a pair of pants and stepped on a pair of leather boots to walk on the beach. Fortunately, the climate in this tropics is very warm, and the temperature is as high as 30 degrees at this time, and Lu Hu is not cold at all.

Walking back to the hill, Lu Hu grabbed a handful of black bird droppings and laughed: "It stinks, but it's really a treasure." Let's take some back and show them to Grandpa Guo, Grandpa Guo will definitely reward us! ”

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On August 29, Zheng Chenggong stood in Li Zhi's third hall with some trepidation, respectful.

Zheng Chenggong is now the head of a transportation company under Li Zhi. The Zheng pirates who originally dominated East Asia no longer had the ability to dominate the seas under the deterrence of ironclad ships, and they all obediently became sailors of the transport team.

This transport brigade has long followed Li Zhi's steamer, shuttling back and forth on the Taiwan-Tianjin route, transporting grain back to Tianjin, and then transporting the materials needed by Taiwan to Hsinchu. Because the Zheng family's ships are all old-fashioned fortune ships, in order to overcome the turbulent winds that sailboats are most afraid of, the Zheng family's ships are all pulled forward by Li Zhi's transport steamers.

In this way, the Zheng family's fleet is less technical. For unskilled work such as the Zheng family's fleet, Li Zhi did not pay much. The sailors of the Zheng family now get more than two taels of monthly money every month, which is very low for sailors. Because the sailors have been running at sea for a long time, they can't take care of their wives and sons, and they don't even have time to share a house with their wives to have children.

In fact, the tenant farmers under Li Zhi's command had higher incomes than the sailors of the Zheng family.

Therefore, the sailors under Zheng Chenggong's command have lost seriously over the years, and at least seventy percent of them have quit.

Zheng Chenggong, of course, also thought about change, he once wanted to buy a large steam engine from Jin Guogong and transform a sailing ship into a ship. In this way, the Zheng family fleet can not be limited to the Tianjin-Taiwan route, and can receive the business of cargo transportation in various coastal areas. Various commercial activities under the leadership of the Duke of Tianjin have developed rapidly, and there are more and more exchanges of people and materials. Zheng Chenggong believes that as long as he owns a steamship, he will be able to continue to make a profit.

But Zheng Chenggong lacked money to buy a steam engine. Zheng Chenggong once wanted to raise money by issuing shares, but the people of Tianjin did not recognize Zheng Zhilong's son, and Zheng Chenggong's shares were not sold.

So basically, Zheng Chenggong is now just a down-and-out business owner under the leadership of Li Zhi, and his status is even inferior to that of ordinary businessmen.

The only difference is that Zheng Chenggong's name was changed by Li Zhi, which makes civilians have some awe when dealing with Zheng Chenggong.

Li Zhi looked at Zheng Chenggong, who was a little restrained, and smiled.

According to the history that Li Zhi knew, Zheng Chenggong was a capable person, and Li Zhi was not prepared to let this young man do nothing for the rest of his life. After several years of training, although Zheng's fleet continued to lose talent, Zheng Chenggong had adapted to Li Zhi's system. Li Zhi decided to give Zheng Chenggong some opportunities for development.

Li Zhi looked at Zheng Chenggong and said, "Zheng Chenggong, do you know the guano soil of the Xisha Islands?" ”

Hearing the name of the Xisha Islands, Zheng Chenggong was stunned for a long time.

"Returning to China, the little people don't know about the Xisha Islands."

Li Zhi opened the map, pointed to the map and said: "In the southern waters of Guangdong, these small islands between Beijiao in the north and Chiyu Island in the south are called Xisha Islands. Did you know that these archipelago are rich in guano soil? ”

Zheng Chenggong thought for a while and said, "Yes, Grandpa Guo, I have heard people say that there are several small islands where guano is piled up layer by layer, and it stinks. ”

Li Zhi smiled: "This is a baby! ”

Li Zhi opened a box, took out the guano soil brought by Lu Hu, and showed it to Zheng Chenggong.

Li Zhi prepares Zheng Chenggong to go to the Paracel Islands to transport guano.

In the history of human development, before the invention of chemical fertilizers, guano once fed Europeans for half a century.

In the nineteenth century, the population of European and American countries was growing rapidly, especially in Europe, where the population pressure was very great. Although the Industrial Revolution was booming at the time, the pressure on agriculture was high. If you want to increase the yield of crops, you need to improve the fertility of the soil, and to improve the fertility of the soil, you need to fertilize. At that time, in order to increase the production of grain, Europeans used a lot of Peruvian guano.

In the nineteenth century, Europeans dug up more than 10 million tons of guano in Peru.