Chapter 148: Dredging the Sea

What met the eyes of the Xing'anping's crew was a huge timber raft.

The raft was finely crafted: thigh-thick timbers had been hewn into square four-edged columns, with grooves left at both ends for easy lashing; the entire raft was flat and smooth, seams tight as if a single piece.

At the front of the raft, a large ming-yellow metal derrick jutted diagonally out from the bow, bearing four bold regular-script characters: "Three Mountains Heavy Industries." Below the derrick, several thin-looking iron cables suspended a large iron clamshell grab.

The grab was now slowly opening its great maw, and then, before the gaping stares of the natives on the junk, it plunged into the calm surface of the Taijiang with a splash, throwing up a mass of seawater. Behind the derrick, two men were busy among some strange iron contraptions, while an unceasing rumbling sound came from the raft.

Some silvery-bright pipes threaded through these iron contraptions, connecting to the space beneath a canvas awning at the rear of the raft, where two upright silver-white iron cylinders stood. These were probably furnaces; one could see someone picking up square wood blocks piled at their feet and tossing them into the furnaces from time to time.

Everyone aboard the junk now held their breath, eyes fixed on the sea surface, afraid of missing the next act — before long, as the rumbling grew more piercing, a great splash sounded, and as if a giant sea turtle were emerging from the deep, the great iron grab burst forth from the seabed with a roar.

Sand, gravel, mud, and seaweed streamed ceaselessly from the gaps of the grab at that moment; the deep blue sea surface instantly gained a patch of yellow slurry. The grab, brimming with silt, did not pause — after slowly rising a short distance, the ming-yellow derrick began to swing, carrying the grab over the bow of a boat beside the raft. The next moment, the grab suddenly released, and a great heap of silt and sand fell into the boat.

The Lin brothers now stood at the bow, mouths agape, faces full of awe, just short of shouting: "It's actually this terrifying!"... A pity the two had never read fantasy novels, so their vocabulary was rather impoverished; they could only murmur a few times: "Inconceivable, inconceivable..."

Just as the Xing'anping brushed past the great timber raft and the Ming people aboard were shouting in excitement, on the fort at the northeast corner of the Dayuan Trading Post, an inspection team was also pointing and commenting on the trial run of the dredger.

As residences on the opposite bank of the Taijiang were completed one after another, many Transmigrators began to disperse; the Dayuan Trading Post was now increasingly quiet, and even the "Observation Deck" with the best view in the northeast corner faced demolition — the Supermarket, oh no, the Imperial City, was already under construction.

Quite a few departments had come to watch the dredger's debut today: Industry, Navy, Infrastructure, Shipyard, including the gentlemen of the Great Office — in total, a dozen or so people were now on the Observation Deck.

The origin of this raft-type dredger lay with the electric tractor at the farm. The Great Office had originally promised the farm's two bosses to import one, but the matter was later sabotaged.

Knowledgeable people on the forum quickly pointed out that the electric tractor was a huge pit: a charging power of up to 150 kW required a dedicated charging station, and the station could not be too far from the farm, which meant building transmission lines and even constructing step-up and step-down transformers at both ends.

Hmph, as the farm expanded in the future, they'd probably have to run lines and build a set every few li... otherwise the tractor would go out and never come back!

This was intolerable — no one cared that the electric tractor was less efficient, since electricity was free anyway, but who could bear the supporting facilities being such a hassle? And so the high-end electric tractor was vetoed.

Certain Transmigrators who had never gotten the equipment they wanted finally found a chance for revenge: not a single one of the Great Office gentlemen, who knew nothing and made decisions off the top of their heads, escaped — all were thoroughly blasted.... The Great Office crowd felt deeply wronged too; how the hell were they supposed to know this damn thing needed fixed investments like a charging station? Wasn't it just a matter of plugging it in? That's how Brother Yuantong charged his!

The farm's two bosses were even more frantic: the good tractor was gone, just like that — was this the legendary bait-and-switch? Fine, then we'll start hoeing under the midday sun. From now on, nobody better bitch to me about grain output again...

A black pot flew back and forth through the air, and in the end, it landed on the head of the one who started it all — Zou Guoqing.

Ever since coming to Dayuan, as the core figure who had advocated opening up Taiwan in the first place, Zou Guoqing basically ended up taking the blame whenever there was a dispute about power: who told you to keep saying things like "development is fast with diesel" and wanting to bathe at the Queen's place? Now there's no diesel — if not you, who else?

In truth, people knew it wasn't his fault; Dayuan simply lacked the capability at present. But still, there always had to be someone to bear the people's wrath...

Zou Guoqing had long since gotten used to this situation. Blast away — this bro will just take it as a hymn.

In the end, regarding the tractor problem, the Great Office still commissioned a certain former Purchasing Manager to come up with an alternative.

Comrade Yao Zhesheng's life had been quite fulfilling since the Crossing Over. In every environment, there are always a few who adapt extremely well, and Yao Zhesheng was one of them. Having dreamed of Crossing Over since reading miscellaneous books in his university days, now that his wish was fulfilled, Yao Zhesheng joined the revolutionary work with loud laughter.

Yao Zhesheng, who had already worked his way up to Kiln District Deputy Manager, upon receiving the Great Office's commission, immediately produced a solution: the gas tractor.

Humanity had begun using wood gas to drive engines very early on. During World War II, lacking petroleum, Germany had nearly 500,000 cars, trucks, tractors, motorcycles, ships, and trains in total... all running on wood gas.

In the 1950s, the buses running all over the streets back home had swaying gas bags mounted on their roofs. Gas compression technology wasn't widespread then, so the gas bags were large and soft, frequently leaking and stranding passengers halfway... Only with later technological advances could LNG carriers loaded with compressed natural gas sail the world, and cities filled with oil-to-gas converted taxis.

The tractor Yao Zhesheng was designing did not need compression technology — compressed gas required all sorts of high-pressure equipment including compressors. One look at later-era refueling stations made it clear: that was simply not something Ming operator-workers could handle — dangerous, and unnecessary.

A tractor is not a taxi; the former's platform is large enough and speed is not a concern, so a direct Type 28 gas generator could be used: order a dual-fuel tractor, then install a detachable dry distillation furnace system at the rear. This system was very simple — two dry distillation furnaces and some pipes and valves; the operator only needed to add firewood at intervals.

Of course, based on a certain faction's fine tradition of being cheap, in Yao Zhesheng's design, the entire gas generation system consisted of top-grade goods: all the pipes, valves, and furnace bodies were actually industrial pressure equipment. Once diesel became available in the future, all this equipment would be stripped out and used in various chemical production processes requiring high-temperature corrosion resistance — this was called getting two meals from one fish.

The tractor problem was thus resolved amid the flying black pots, and at the same time, another set of equipment, largely similar but with minor differences, was ordered as well — the dredger was now an arrow on the string and had to be built.