Chapter 28: Arrival at Changhua

Not wanting to keep his knowledge to himself, he taught her how to use the sextant. The sextant was more convenient and accurate to use. Li Huamei, a seasoned sailor, fell in love with it immediately after trying it.

“Such a useful thing is truly rare,” she said, reluctantly handing the sextant back to Chen Haiyang. “Can you sell one to me?”

“Perhaps in the future,” Chen Haiyang said. “We still have difficulty manufacturing them ourselves.”

“Is the lens difficult to make?”

“That’s right,” Chen Haiyang said while instructing the cadets on how to use it. “The lenses have to be ground by hand, which is not easy.”

Li Huamei sighed. “Alas, you have so many good things, but you’re unwilling to sell them.”

“Pay attention to where the light spot falls, hold it steady. That’s right!” Chen Haiyang didn’t answer. What could be sold was up to the Executive Committee.

“I have a feeling,” Li Huamei leaned closer to Chen Haiyang, “that you all know everything, but you just won’t say it!” The distance between them was so close that he could feel her breath on the roots of his hair, sending a shiver down his spine. The good impression he had of her began to cool. He didn’t reply, but instead shouted loudly at the cadets:

“Begin calculating the ship’s speed!”

At the command, the cadets formed groups of three. One threw a small wooden board overboard. One side of the board was covered with lead to make it stand upright in the water. Another cadet held a retractable reel, with a line connecting it to the board. The cadet who threw the board watched it as it emerged from the wake at the stern and immediately shouted:

“Start!”

The cadet holding the reel began to let out the line, and the reel spun rapidly. At the same time, the cadet with the hourglass flipped it over, and the fine sand began to flow quickly.

“Stop!” As the sand in the hourglass ran out, the timekeeper shouted the stop command. The line handler stopped the reel.

“Three knots!” the line handler reported based on the markings on the line. “Current speed, 3 knots.”

Chen Haiyang observed their actions to see if they were up to standard. He nodded. “Good, next group!”

Li Huamei looked at them and said, “Your navigation skills must have been learned from the English.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Only English sailors use this method.”

A speed of 3 knots was normal for a sailing ship, and although a bit slow, it was safe. The Chinese navigation guides and charts they had were based on 20th-century data; the coastal conditions of Hainan in this era were a blank slate.

As the sun gradually set, the wind began to pick up, and the waves grew larger. The measured speed had reached 5 knots. Lin Chuanqing, feeling uneasy, picked up the walkie-talkie hanging around his neck and asked:

“Lookout, lookout, what’s the situation at sea?”

“All clear,” replied Huang Zhaizi from the top of the mast. The view from the masthead was exceptionally wide, but the swaying was also particularly violent. From the top of the mast, he could see many ships nearby, mostly fishing boats, with a few larger ships with full sails in between. Overall, everything was peaceful.

“How is it? Can you handle it up there?”

“No problem. The view is great, the air is fresh, haha.” Huang Zhaizi seemed to be particularly well-suited for it.

“What’s the cloud situation?”

“Altocumulus, moving from east to west.”

This indicated that the weather was normal and there would be no wind or rain.

“Ruan Xiao Wu, you climb up and join Instructor Huang on lookout!”

The boy called Ruan Xiao Wu looked a little scared, but he stepped out of line, grabbed the rigging on the mast, and began to climb.

The first day passed smoothly. With a gentle breeze, the fleet traveled about 40 nautical miles at a speed of 3 knots per hour. Since they were sailing along the coast, there was a risk of hitting reefs at night. Around 18:00, Lin Chuanqing found a deserted bay to anchor for the night. He calculated the local latitude and longitude: 19°44’0”N, 109°9’0”E. Checking the map, he found that this was the location of Yangpu Port in Danzhou.

Yangpu was one of the best deep-water ports in western Hainan. In this time, it appeared empty and desolate. The bay was large, with some sandbars. In the distance, a few sailboats could be seen moored by the shore, and there was a small fishing village.

A rowing boat was sent down to sound the depths and determine the channel and anchorage. Then, the Zhenhai lowered its outboard motors and towed the Hangzhou behind it, slowly and carefully entering the harbor.

Li Huamei stood on the quarterdeck, watching the churning water below. So this is why they don’t have many cannons. It seems that not only their iron ships can sail without sails or oars, but their wooden ships can too. They must have installed something on the ship to achieve this. And that something should be in one of the cabins below my feet…

Wang Luobin decided to stay in Yangpu for a day or two. Yangpu was the most valuable deep-water port for development on the west coast of Hainan Island. It was a port that the future transmigrator regime would focus on developing, so it was necessary to gather more information about it. He immediately ordered the assault team ashore to secure the situation and replenish food and water.

Looking through the binoculars, the Yangpu coast was very barren, but there was a fishing village on the shore. The special reconnaissance team, along with the marine team, landed in rowing boats and quickly entered the village. The entire village had no more than a dozen households, and more than half had already fled. As soon as they saw strange ships entering the harbor, the local fishermen had all run away, leaving only a few old and weak behind. When they saw the newcomers, they all bowed and scraped. Fortunately, they spoke the same Lingao dialect. Through the locally recruited marines, they learned that the villagers were begging them not to burn their houses or steal their boats, and that they could take all the fish they wanted.

Xiong Buyou from the Foreign Affairs Department comforted them with kind words, saying that they were only ashore to replenish water and food and would pay for everything they took. He also gave them some gifts like sewing needles and white sugar, which pacified the old men. Meanwhile, more people were being ferried ashore in the rowing boats. The transmigrators, who had been seasick all day, were now feeling a little better. Their seasickness had passed, and their appetites had returned. They all wanted to go ashore for a walk. Some even proposed to go hunting to get some fresh meat. They also wanted to see if there were any fish, vegetables, or eggs to buy in the village. Wang Luobin thought that since they would be staying in Yangpu for a day or two anyway, it would be good to let everyone go ashore.

After landing, the marine team quickly secured the entire village, not bothering with those who had already fled. They quickly set up a temporary camp with tents and barbed wire next to the fishing village and posted observation posts on the nearby high ground, temporarily settling in.

The amateur hunters conducted a disheartening hunt on the shore. The place could be described as having three abundances: barren land, rocks, and cacti. With these three abundances, there was basically not even a wild rabbit to be found, and of course, no wild vegetables. After wandering around for a long time, they returned empty-handed.

That night, Chen Haiyang had to continue his discussion of astronomical navigation techniques with Li Huamei in the middle of the night. She demonstrated how to use the quadrant, and the cadets were amazed at how large the difference was between the data obtained from the quadrant and the sextant. Although the error rate was less than 5%, less than 0.1 degrees, when converted to length, it was 9 kilometers. On the vast ocean, this small error could lead to many fatal mistakes. No wonder early navigators preferred to sail along the coast—after all, landmark-based measurements were more accurate.

The next day, the exploration team surveyed a part of the bay, and the navy measured the water depth and selected several anchorages. The investigation of the surrounding natural environment concluded that the area was very barren, with basically no large natural rivers, making it difficult to get fresh water. There was little arable land and even fewer trees.

“If we can solve the problem of industrial water, this would be a good place for industrial development. It doesn’t occupy any agricultural land and doesn’t damage the environment,” Wang Luobin lamented after a field investigation. “The environment is already bad enough.”

On the morning of the third day, the fleet set off again. After several more days of such stop-and-go survey activities, they finally arrived at the mouth of the Changhua River on the noon of the fifth day. Here, the Changhua River split into two branches, the south and the north, before flowing into the sea. The mouth of the south branch was called Sanjia Port. The north branch flowed south around the county town and into the sea at Wuni Port, which was closer to the county town and was the main port of Changhua County.

However, through Lin Chuanqing’s binoculars, the Wuni Port of the north branch was clearly not suitable for anchorage. There was a large area of silt, and apart from a few small fishing boats, there were no ships moored there.

Li Huamei was very familiar with the hydrographic conditions here. “Let’s go to Sanjia Port. A 200-liao ship would run aground in Wuni Port.”

So the fleet changed course and anchored in Sanjia Port on the south branch. As the ships entered the bay, they saw a few villages on the shore, as well as some ruined walls. It looked like it had been a military garrison in the past, now abandoned.

It was the dry season in spring, and the flow of the Changhua River was very small. The riverbeds were dry, exposing the fine white sand and withered water plants. The north bank of the Changhua River was a plain, and the vegetation along the river had been severely damaged, forming a dry tropical savanna environment similar to the African savanna. There were even sand dunes in many places, extending far inland.

At the end of the plain was a chain of hills with relatively dense vegetation, with an estimated height of 200-400 meters. The south bank of the Changhua River was also a plain, with faint signs of paddy fields and a walled city—which should be the Changhua County town of the Ming Dynasty.

“Where is the Haiwei Town quartz sand mine that Director Wen mentioned?” Bai Guoshi asked. The Haiwei Town quartz sand mine was a key target of this exploration. The local quartz sand had a raw ore silica content of 99.8%, with 0.1% iron, few impurities, and uniform particle size. It was a rare find in the country, and the reserves were huge.

“Isn’t that it?” Wang Luobin pointed to the white sand on the distant beach.

“What about Haiwei Town? There should be a town—”

“This is 1629.”

Wang Luobin ordered a small boat to be lowered. A few members of the exploration team rowed a sampan towards the beach. After a while, they returned with several baskets of sand. Wang Luobin took a handful and examined it carefully. In the sunlight, the sand in his palm was as white as snow—what a good find! He certainly knew its value. Such good quartz sand would be a waste to use for wine bottles and mirrors. It could also be used as a raw material for circuit fuses, display screens, and the like.