Chapter 32: Shilu Survey Report

Outside the Li village was a large patch of wild bamboo forest. The exploration team asked the local Li people for help and cut down dozens of bamboo stalks. The thicker ones were cut into similar lengths, while the thinner ones were split into bamboo strips and twisted into ropes for tying the rafts. The apprentice Wang hadn’t managed to catch any wild fowl, so he took out some of his white sugar and asked a local carpenter to help build the rafts.

From the local Li people, they learned that the river upstream became more rugged as it entered the mountainous terrain, with frequent shallows and rapids. To make it easier to pass, the rafts could not be too large. The resulting rafts were controlled to a width of less than 1.2 meters, similar to the simple bamboo rafts used in Hunan and Jiangxi. Each raft could carry five people, but since they had a lot of equipment, they ended up making three. The carpenters in the village made some bamboo stools and fixed them to the rafts. As a finishing touch, they added a bamboo-mat canopy to each raft—the sun was very strong here.

It took less than a day to build the rafts. On the morning of the third day, Li Benqing’s malaria had completely subsided. Not only was he clear-headed, but his appetite had also returned. He Ping gave him a final dose of medicine for consolidation.

Li Benqing was extremely grateful to this group of strange Han people who had cured his illness and wished he could give them everything he owned as a reward. This kind of “cold and heat” sickness would strike once a year, and each time he would suffer for nearly a month before recovering. This time, after taking the medicine for three days, he was fine. The Han people also said that it would not relapse this time. Although he was skeptical, it was true that the medicine had taken effect immediately.

However, he had nothing in his house besides two machetes and a few crossbows. Li Benqing was very embarrassed and insisted on going out to hunt some game to treat them, but he was stopped by Xiong Buyou.

“Game is not important. We’ve been delayed here for a few days and want to head upstream today. Can you help us find a guide who is familiar with that area?”

“Go upstream?” Li Benqing was a little surprised. Even the Li people rarely went there. If they were looking for medicinal herbs, the things on the mountains upstream could also be found in the nearby hills.

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

“Never heard of it,” Li Benqing replied bluntly, which made the exploration team suspicious. But according to Mu Min, he was not lying—she had been a police officer for many years and could tell if someone was lying.

Xiong Buyou didn’t give up and continued to gesture, “There’s a river at the foot of the mountain that flows into the Changhua River. It’s called the Shilu River—”

Li Benqing still shook his head.

Cui Yunhong, however, had an idea.

“Ask him if there’s a mountain here that produces green stones.”

The so-called “green stone” was copper ore—malachite. The name Shilu came from malachite. Because both the local Li and Han people in Hainan were accustomed to placing the modifier after the noun, “Shilu” was actually “lüshi” (green stone).

The first thing that drew attention to Shilu Ridge was not its iron ore, but the outcroppings of copper ore on its surface. Since the Qing dynasty, people had been illegally mining it. It was not until 1935, when the Qiongya Industrial Bureau sent people to Shilu Ridge to investigate the copper mine, that it was first discovered that Shilu’s richest mineral deposit was iron ore.

“Yes, yes,” Li Benqing suddenly understood. “You want to go to Yayuling!”

Xiong Buyou didn’t know what Yayuling was, but Cui Yunhong did. The vague contents of his textbooks suddenly became clear.

“Yes, yes, it’s Yayuling!” Cui Yunhong nodded repeatedly, thinking how foolish he had been. The name Shilu was only used since the Qing dynasty. This was still the Ming dynasty.

The apprentice Wang said, “Uncle, haven’t you been to Yayuling before?”

Li Benqing looked troubled. He pondered for a long time. The group waited anxiously, but apart from Xiong Buyou, no one could communicate with Li Benqing, who spoke a broken Hainanese dialect.

After a while, Li Benqing lowered his voice and said, “Shopkeepers, I’m afraid you’re not peddlers, are you?”

Everyone was startled. Xiong Buyou laughed, “If not for business, why would we come to the Li territory?”

Li Benqing said, “Shopkeepers, you cured my illness, so I’ll say a few more words.” He paused. “Taking you all to Yayuling is no problem. It’s not far from here, and the road is not difficult. Although I haven’t been there many times, I still know the way. But I advise you: the gold and silver on Yayuling are the treasures of Qiongzhou, protected by spirits. You can’t take them.”

It turned out that the rumor of treasure on Yayuling had existed for many years. Even without the rumor of gold and silver in the mountains, the copper mine itself was very attractive. So every ten or twenty years, as long as the Li territory was peaceful, Han people would come in groups to mine on Yayuling. But no one had ever succeeded. They either failed to find gold and silver and lost their capital, or they suffered casualties from mine collapses and had to abandon it. Over time, it was said that this mountain was a major spiritual anchor of the island, a place of great geomantic importance, protected by spirits.

After listening to Li Benqing’s idle talk, the group learned that Shilu Ridge was already famous. It seemed that the saying that the Chinese lacked a pioneering spirit was pure nonsense. In an ancient society with low technological levels and poor transportation, to travel hundreds of li through these barren mountains to mine, how could a nation without an adventurous spirit do that?

“We’re not going to mine for gold and silver, we just want to have a look at Yayuling,” Xiong Buyou continued to persuade him. “We’ll be gone in a few days.”

Li Benqing said, “I’ll take you there. It’s on me. But please consider what I’ve said.”

The apprentice Wang had no such reservations and laughed, “Uncle, just take them there. The shopkeepers will reward you with a few more jin of white sugar when you get back. You can use it to find an aunt for me, so you don’t have to go to the ‘guilong’ gate every night, singing to find a woman to ‘xia tai’!”

Li Benqing laughed, “You’re so young, what nonsense are you talking? You don’t learn anything else, just this!”

The so-called “guilong” was a special building in the Li village. When several women of the same village reached marriageable age, they would build a house for themselves on the edge of the village and sleep there at night. Men who were looking for a spouse would go to the “guilong” every night to “lüe ya.” If a woman was interested, she would let the man stay the night. Generally, when people talked about going to the “guilong,” they said “lüe ya,” which meant to court. A few people also said “xia tai,” which referred to the two having sexual relations.

They agreed that Li Benqing would lead them to Yayuling. As for the reward, Li Benqing originally refused to accept it, but Cui Yunhong gave him a new hooked knife, a bottle of white wine, and a few jin of white sugar. Li Benqing liked them very much and accepted them.

Considering that he was just recovering, the survey team rested for another day in the Li village. The exploration team was not idle during these few days. They roughly surveyed the resources around the Li village and drew a topographical map. In terms of resources, besides the soapberry forest, they also found a small-scale tin mine nearby. Unfortunately, the transportation was inconvenient, and it had no mining value.

The next morning, the group set off upstream on bamboo rafts. The apprentice Wang stayed in the Li village to look after the goods and luggage they left behind. The group traveled light, only bringing the necessary equipment and camping tools. Li Benqing brought his own dry rations and salt, and also carried a crossbow. Mu Min curiously asked him if the arrows he brought were poisoned.

“No, the upas tree is hard to find. Even if I find it, the local Han people don’t allow us to use it,” Li Benqing gestured. The Han people he referred to were the officials in Changhua town.

Hearing that the upas tree was hard to find, several of the camping enthusiasts were a little disappointed. However, everyone was very interested in his crossbow and took turns playing with it. The structure of this crossbow was very simple, and its effective range would not exceed 50 meters. No wonder Li Benqing said that he mainly used it to set ground traps in places where wild animals frequented. However, he rarely used crossbow arrows for hunting—if he wanted to sell the fur, a hole from a crossbow arrow would make it worthless. Li Benqing mainly hunted by digging pits and setting various kinds of snares. The hunting enthusiasts in the exploration team took turns exchanging relevant experiences with him on the bamboo raft. After half a day, they had a general understanding of what he was saying through a combination of words and gestures, and their relationship became much warmer.

Li Benqing had caught quite a few animals. Jiang Muzhi, who was responsible for collecting biological data in the exploration team, quickly learned from his description that there were ferret-badgers, otters, large and small civets, and masked palm civets in the area, all of which had considerable economic value. As for wild rabbits and wild boars, they were widely distributed. The most surprising thing was that there were also black bears here.

“This thing is not to be trifled with—” Li Benqing shook his head, “it runs fast and can climb trees.”

But this resource was of little use to the transmigrators. They didn’t need bearskin for hats, and the use of bear bile was not on the agenda. Relatively speaking, deerskin was more useful.

Li Benqing said that there were two types of deer here, one large and one small. The exploration team quickly figured out that the large one was the sambar deer, and the small one was the red muntjac. Both of these deer were of great 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 each animal he caught quite accurately, which made it much more convenient for the transmigrators to make judgments.

Li Benqing saw them taking notes and constantly recording his words. He was both surprised and proud, not understanding why these Han people valued these things that were usually just idle gossip and even wrote them down. This added a bit more mystery to their purpose.

Because it was the dry season, the water level was not high, and the current was very gentle. It was not difficult to pole the raft upstream, but they often had to pass through rocky shallows, and everyone often had to get off the raft and push it to get through. In some places, the rocky shoals were exposed above the water, and they had to carry the raft over to continue.

As the raft moved upstream, the exploration team carefully observed the changes in the main channel and the tributaries, constantly recording the surrounding topography, landforms, and vegetation types. The trees on the banks were sparse, but the shrubs and grass were dense. As the raft passed, it would often startle 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, as Li Benqing had said, had not left many traces here.

Around three or four in the afternoon, the raft finally arrived at the place that would later be called San Cha He Town. Of course, this place was now a desolate grassland. The water became very shallow, and the raft scraped the sand and gravel at the bottom of the river more than once. As for the Shilu River, this tributary of the Changhua River was now completely unnavigable, barely deep enough to cover a person’s ankles.

The exploration team decided to abandon the rafts and land here. Everyone worked together to drag the rafts ashore. According to Li Benqing, they would reach their destination by following this river upstream for another fifty or sixty li. Since it was getting late, everyone camped here for the night, preparing to set off again early the next morning.

The exploration team lit a bonfire at the campsite and burned a lot of artemisia to repel mosquitoes. To avoid arousing suspicion, the survey team did not use any of the more conspicuous equipment. However, their matches, sleeping bags, and dry rations aroused Li Benqing’s strong interest—especially the matches. Dinner was the “Grassland” series dry rations. Li Benqing tried the rice crackers for the first time and actually said they were delicious. Everyone gave him a lot of their share. Li Benqing made bamboo tube rice in return, and with the addition of a little salt and lemongrass, the bamboo tube rice whetted everyone’s appetite.

As they were about to go to sleep at night, they heard a suspicious roar. Remembering what Li Benqing had said about the black bears, many people became nervous. To ensure a peaceful sleep, Cui Yunhong instructed everyone to prepare their guns, light another roaring fire, and take turns on duty, constantly adding a large amount of fuel—dry grass and small shrub branches were everywhere here.

The next day, they all got up at five in the morning, hastily ate breakfast, and set off again. They continued to walk upstream along the river. After many twists and turns, guided by the compass, the map, and Li Benqing, they walked another fifty or sixty li. At sunset, they finally reached the foot of a mountain. Clear river water flowed slowly out of a valley in front of them.

“This is Yayuling,” Li Benqing pointed.

Cui Yunhong knew they had arrived. He took out his compass, checked it against the setting sun, and the needle pointed southwest. Looking in the direction of the needle, he saw a reddish-brown mountain peak. He nodded. This area should be the famous Hainan Shilu magnetite mine.

Everyone was excited. The Shilu iron mine! This was China’s largest open-pit rich iron mine, with nearly 300 million tons of magnetite reserves with an average iron content of over 42%! It was also associated with various other ores such as cobalt, copper, nickel, silver, sulfur, and dolomite. If it weren’t for the lack of coal here, Shilu would be a natural large-scale coal-iron complex base.

Cui Yunhong was so excited he felt dizzy and almost fell. He was about to charge up the mountain with his equipment, but everyone quickly stopped him, saying that it was getting dark and it was not safe to climb the mountain. It would not be too late to go tomorrow.

They set up camp by the stream for the night. The night passed without incident. The next day, Cui Yunhong led a 5-person team up the mountain. The rest of the people stayed behind to guard the camp.

Yayuling was not high, and the mountain was not steep. The overall vegetation on the slope was still a savanna landscape, with large areas of cogon grass taller than a person. Although it was better than a tropical rainforest, it was still quite difficult to climb. Fortunately, they had Li Benqing, an old hunter, as their guide. He would choose routes with sparser vegetation to advance.