Chapter 642 Laying the foundation for the port city (seeking votes and subscriptions)
The three alternative settlements selected by Shouya, two of which are in the territory of the Salt Tribe and the Food Tribe, and the last one is between the Food Tribe and the Fishing Tribe. These three plots of land have their own characteristics, and Shouya is not sure about making a choice for a while.
Luo Chong sat on the kang at home, laid out the maps drawn by Shouya, and then looked at them carefully according to the text description.
Among the three settlements, the one located in the Salt Tribe is an open tidal flat. There is no shelter or barrier here, and there are no huge rocks or mountains. The tidal flats near the sea are relatively steep, so the water level is also relatively deep. At high tide, the water depth at the seaside can reach more than 30 meters, and at low tide, it is also more than 10 meters deep.
The sea water here is very clear and dark blue. No obvious reefs can be found on the sea surface with the naked eye. Most of the places near the coast are coarse sand and small stones. It stands to reason that the depth of this water level is enough to dock a 10,000-ton giant ship, but Luo Chong did not make a decision immediately, not for any other reason, but because the tidal difference is too large.
Although the coastline from low tide to high tide is steep, it is more than 700 meters wide. Coupled with the tidal drop of nearly 20 meters, it is too difficult to build a port.
If the port's pier is built on the low-tide coastline, then when the tide rises, the sea water will flood the entire port to the bottom of the sea. But if it is built on the high-tide coastline, the pier will be suspended 20 meters above the sea surface when the tide falls. With such a high drop, how can the ship unload?
Unless a floating pier is built, it is basically useless. However, according to the current strength and technology of the Han tribe, it is too difficult to build a floating seaport.
And there is another reason why Luo Chong looks down on this place, that is, the surrounding area of this port is not very good. It is a wasteland with nothing here, and it is not close to the village of the natives of Zhudao. The surrounding land is too saline and alkaline, and no food can be grown, let alone useful minerals. There are relatively few trees, all of which are sparse woods and bamboo forests. In a word, there is not much development value.
The second alternative station is located in the north-east of Zhudao Island, under the jurisdiction of the Food Tribe. The scenery here is beautiful, with mountains, water and green trees. There are mountains by the sea, but they are earthen mountains, so it is not difficult to construct. There are also many trees, and there are towering ancient trees on the mountains. There are also several villages of the Food Tribe nearby, with people living there. Although the villagers have been cutting firewood for generations, the self-healing ability of the trees is much faster than they cut them, so they are still very lush.
The most important thing is that there is a freshwater river more than 20 meters wide at the foot of the mountain, which is an important source of water for the aborigines of several surrounding villages to irrigate their fertile fields and draw water for their lives.
From the seaside to the earthen mountain, there is a plain at the bottom of the mountain, and the freshwater river flows on the plain, winding eastward.
As for the hydrological conditions at the seaside, the tidal drop is still too large, there are no reefs in the bay here, and the water depth is completely fine, so other than that, Luo Chong is quite satisfied with it.
First of all, the hills by the sea are all earthen hills with a thick soil layer, sufficient fresh water sources, and large tracts of forest resources. These conditions are very useful for the construction of the station. The soil is easy to dig and shape, and can be used to build rammed earth buildings. It is close to water sources and can also be used to develop agricultural planting. The rich forest resources not only need wood for the construction of the station, but also the mission can use local materials to make some utensils and sell them to the local indigenous people in the future. Therefore, Luo Chong still attaches great importance to this place, but he still has not decided to use this place.
There are two reasons for not looking at it. First, there is the problem of too large tidal differences. Second, it is because of the earthen hills by the sea. Although the thick soil and forests are good, they have become a barrier to the inland of Zhudao. If you just walk, there is no problem, but this is a cargo port. A large amount of materials need to be transported to Zhudao every day, but the traffic between the port and the inland is blocked by the earthen hills. If you want to transport a large number of materials, you have to build roads. Although this is not difficult, it takes a lot of time.
The third piece of land caught Luo Chong's eyes. The environment here was different from the previous two. It was located in the northeast corner of Zhudao Island, the closest place to the mainland. What Luo Chong liked most was that it was the estuary of the large freshwater river on Zhudao Island.
The estuary of the freshwater river, just by looking at these words, it was not difficult to guess the surrounding geographical environment. The vast sandy beach formed by the impact of the river water on the silt, and the overall terrain also showed a trend of high inside and low outside, otherwise the river water would not flow into the sea from here, and the water always flows to the low place.
In addition, there was the issue of the distribution of surrounding forces and landforms. The east side of this cape was the Yashan area mentioned in the beast tooth letter. The seaside was full of steep stone cliffs. Of course, there were also relatively low places suitable for ports, but the west side of the cape was an inland river plain. There were a lot of farmland and villages on both sides of the river, and the population was relatively concentrated.
The power division is right in the middle of the Food Tribe and the Fishing Tribe. If a port is built here, first of all, there will be people, which will facilitate the mission to recruit local indigenous labor. Moreover, this is an important settlement of the Food Tribe, with a very large population. There are at least several thousand people nearby, which can match a county of the Han Tribe.
The Food Tribe happens to be a tribe that mainly relies on farming, and so does the Han Tribe. If a port is built here, Luo Chong and Shou Ya are confident that they can establish a good relationship with each other.
The Fishing Tribe on the other side is also easy to deal with. Their lives are already hard. When the time comes, the mission can take care of them a little, and then they can have a good relationship with the Fishing Tribe, and they can also have one more customer.
The topography of the entire cape is also relatively suitable. There is a beach on the west side of the cape, and there is also a freshwater river estuary. The terrain is relatively flat, so the muddy mudflats on the seashore are also very wide, like a swamp and difficult to walk. There are also many marine mangroves, but this is not a problem. It can be artificially transformed and the land can be hardened.
To the east of the cape is Yashan, and there are many reefs and islands around Yashan. The larger ones are as big as a primary school, covering several hectares, and the smaller ones are only dozens of square meters, which is about the same size as a living room. Moreover, most of these islands and reefs are built on hard rock bases. When the water level is low, some small islands will stand on the sea like a huge stone pillar, and this is what Luo Chong likes most.
Although these islands and reefs hanging in the sea are not big, with an area of only a few houses, they are the best places to build forts and lighthouses. For example, if some huge lighthouses are built on those towering reefs, with rotating convex lens searchlights, large bells and loudspeakers installed on them, they can provide light and sound guidance for ships at night and in foggy times, so that ships will not get lost and return to the port safely.
In addition, if the port is built at the mouth of a large river, the Yashan in the southeast direction can be used to resist the storm, truly turning it into a safe haven, so that fishermen and caravans can reduce unnecessary losses.
Regarding the transportation inland of Takeshima, if the inland waterway is passable, the delegation can load the materials onto a small boat, then go upstream along the Tamsui River and sell the goods to every corner of Takeshima where people live. After all, humans originally live near water, so this plan is not impossible.
The last problem is that the tidal drop is relatively large, and the question of how to build the port is. This third alternative site is really suitable and excellent in every aspect, but if the problem of this port is not solved, it will not work in the end.
Luo Chong began to worry. He didn't understand why the tidal drop here was so large that it could reach more than 15 to 20 meters, which is equivalent to the height of a six or seven-story building. Just think about it and you will know how difficult it is to build this port.
"Is it because there are two moons? The huge tide caused by the doubling of gravity?" Luo Chong suddenly had such an idea, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was so.
However, he would not be so crazy as to want to poke down a moon. Besides, he didn't have the ability, so he had to find a way to start with the port in the end.
The port is mainly composed of a dock, which is a platform for people, horses and vehicles to load goods, and a pier (a passage connecting the dock to the ship). The dock is easy to build and can be built at the edge of the waterline at the highest water level, but the pier must extend to the ship docking point at the lowest water level, and the biggest technical difficulty is this section of the pier.
Luo Chong thought about it and thought that it was not impossible to use a floating pier. There was no technical problem. Thousands of large wooden barrels with a capacity of more than one cubic meter, the kind that could fit a person, could be made to provide buoyancy, and then the empty barrels could be sealed and arranged in a square array, tied tightly, and then wooden boards could be laid on top, with one end extending into the sea and the other end connected to the dock. If you are afraid that the floating pier will sway left and right, you can also hang several iron anchors on both sides to the seabed in turn to stabilize the pier. From
this point of view, it seems that there is no problem. It is similar to building a floating bridge with a landing craft in the past. The technical difficulty is not great and the construction period is short. It is completely possible to transport everything to the local area for assembly after it is completed.
However, Luo Chong gave up after thinking about it, mainly because of the tidal drop. After he imagined this thing in his mind, he simulated the low tide scene. One end was high and the other end was low. The hundreds of meters long trestle had a slope as high as a six-story building. The anchor chains fixed on both sides also became loose due to the low tide. The whole trestle was like a winding snake lying on the slope, which was really a pit.
However, when he thought of the winding and high slope, Luo Chong suddenly remembered a text he had learned in school. He couldn't remember the name, but he still knew the content. It was about Zhan Tianyou building a railway in Zhangjiakou. Because Zhangjiakou was mountainous and the slope of the mountain was very steep, it was difficult for the train to climb the slope. In the end, the clever Zhan Tianyou used a herringbone railway to solve the problem of steep slope.
Although Luo Chong is now building a port, the difficulties he encountered are similar to this one. The slope is too steep. Perhaps he can learn from Zhan Tianyou's herringbone railway principle and divide the trestle into several horizontal steps. By extending the channel to slow down the slope, this is indeed a good idea.
But that being said, if he didn't go and see it himself, he wouldn't have any idea at all, not to mention others. No one would know better than him how to build a port. Although he himself didn't know how to build it, he had seen it, while others had never even seen it. This was the advantage brought by vision.
In this case, let's just use the floating pier to deal with it temporarily. Anyway, before this route is opened, it's nonsense to build any port. For now, the main construction goal should be the land base.
Speaking of this, Luo Chong had more ideas. The Han tribe would definitely develop towards the sea in the future. He would not be willing to build an inland country. The historical experience of his previous life told him that the most developed cities in the world were all within 100 kilometers of the coastline. What did this show? It showed the importance of the ocean.
In the future, the Han tribe would definitely have more than one seaport city, even a capital city, but the area that the Han tribe explored and developed was still very limited. So the seaport city was still far away, but the embassy was different. This was a ready-made opportunity. The Han tribe could completely treat it as a pilot project for a seaport city, use this city to accumulate experience in building a seaport city, and prepare for the future development of the coastal economy.
Although it was just a resident of the mission, Luo Chong's idea was not particularly exaggerated, because there were indeed so many things needed, such as administrative centers, trade centers, store cargo stations, warehouses, logistics, manufacturing plants, residential areas, agricultural areas, banks, barracks, schools, etc. Even if only one of these things was built, it could be called a city.
The location of the city was on the bank of the Qingshui River, which was convenient for urban water use. The main location was between the fishing tribe and the food tribe. The sovereignty dispute here was not very big, and both sides did not value it very much. In addition, the Xin tribe acted as a mediator, and the Han tribe promised some benefits, which was enough to get a place to build a city.
Of course, such a huge project could not be completed all at once, so we still used the old method and carried out the project in stages.
First of all, the first phase mainly had three goals, that is, the living area, the garrison camp, the factory and the warehouse. First, the living place and security issues were solved, and then some low-level technologies were spread through the factory to win people's hearts and open up the situation in the local area.
When the local natives get to know the Han tribe and see that the Han tribe can bring them a better life, and some people are willing to enter the factory to learn technology and work, the delegation will recruit a large number of workers to build the second and third phases of the project. By then, with sufficient labor, it will be much easier.
Thinking of this, Luo Chong quickly found paper and pen to write down his ideas, ready to let Shouya do it according to his ideas, but he did not say anything about the specific city planning, just put forward some of his own suggestions, and the rest of the layout depends on Shouya himself.
(End of this chapter)
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