(10,000 words delivered.) It took almost half an hour to get to the landing area tonight, so it's late. Sorry!)

The following text:

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While Link was still figuring out how to sell his wines. That afternoon, Charles came to Hans's farm.

When he arrived, Link was about to go to the shooting range to shoot a gun, and Charlie happened to be interested in practicing his marksmanship, so he invited Charlie to join him.

Charlie will be visiting Old Brown today. Link hopes he's coming this time with good news. But Charlie didn't let him get his wish.

"Unfortunately, Brown Sr. is not going to convince other councillors to put the piece of land you are talking about up for auction," Charlie said. Because the land was used to ensure that the cattle in the nearby pastures survived the winter and survived the early spring when there was a lack of forage. If the state government were to sell the land for private use, it would likely provoke a potentially strong reaction from the cowboy community. ”

"In many places, state governments have set up state-owned pastures like that," he explained. If one is sold, it will tug at the nerves of ranchers elsewhere. That would cause some trouble for the state government. So the state government doesn't plan to sell it to private individuals unless there is no other pasture in the vicinity that needs to be used for that state pasture. ”

Link listened to him, pulled the trigger and ran out of bullets from the pistol before saying, "That's a pity." ”

Charlie's hand was shaken by the recoil of the pistol, and when he heard Link's words, he smiled and lowered his pistol, saying, "But he mentioned another piece of land." The state government of that land had plans to put it up for sale. I just don't know if you're interested. ”

Link smiled and said, "There, how big?"

"Twenty miles or so east of **. It used to be a military base, but it has been abandoned for more than two decades. There were underground nuclear tests and howitzer nuclear tests at one time. Underground nuclear tests have no environmental impact on the surface, and the yield of nuclear grenade tests is extremely small, and soil tests have now shown that the ecology has been restored. As for the area, Mr. Brown said that it seemed to be a basin, with mountains on three sides, and even those mountains were within the boundaries of a military base. The total area is quite large. ”

Link was a little skeptical when he heard Charlie say that. He knew that it took a long time for radioactive matter to decay. The islands in the Pacific, where nuclear tests were conducted in the fifties, are still uninhabitable. "When was the nuclear test conducted?" he asked.

Charlie raised his gun and took aim again, saying: "There seem to have been several underground nuclear tests there in the fifties, and then in the early sixties of the last century, the Army tested several nuclear grenade live-fire exercises there." Later, the artillery capable of firing nuclear grenades was mothballed, and such experiments were no longer carried out here. After long-term follow-up testing, the amount of nuclear radiation there has been reduced to a level that is harmless to humans. ”

He fired two shots and said, "Nevada intends to put that land to use." ”

Link groaned. He is skeptical if the Nevada government says that the radiation there is harmless. Because in many cases, the amount of radiation may not be lethal. But the harm of radiation is not only to kill people immediately, but also to cause lesions under long-term exposure. It may take twenty or thirty years to see what happens.

He asked, "Can I go and take a sample for testing?"

"I guess that shouldn't be a problem. There is practically no closure there. Because Highway 50 is right next to it. In fact, the area that the Nevada government wants to sell is the basin and the surrounding mountains, and the northern boundary is Highway 50. To the east, it crosses the mountains to the east, including the Bill-Anna Highlands. The total area seems to be between 250,000 and 280,000 acres. But there was an asphalt road in the middle that connected to the copper mines over there. That road is twenty meters on both sides and no longer auctioned range. ”

Link thought for a moment and asked, "Did they decide to auction it on the fly?"

"Probably not. I heard from Brown Sr. that there was an auction for the land four years ago, but no one bid. Because there is no surface water source there. Cha Li thought for a moment and said. "I've heard that there are concerns about the impact on groundwater. ”

Link thought for a moment and said, "Please speak to Senator Brown." I need to do some research, and if the radiation there is really harmless, I'll consider making a bid. ”

After dinner, Link arranges for a plane to take Charlie back to San Francisco. The next day, he went to Las Vegas to find a special team to ask them to take a sample of the soil from the land Charlie mentioned to see if the radiation there was really low enough to be harmless to humans.

And he flew the plane around the land for a while. It was found that the surrounding pastures of the military base were quite small, but there were several mines, one on a larger scale, one to the west and one to the south. And to the southeast there is a small town. It's five or six miles from the edge of the highlands. There are a number of pastures around the town.

He also found the abandoned military base. There's an airfield where nine old jets are parked, rusted. On one side there are hundreds of scrapped armored bodies. There are also a large number of waste shipping containers and various abandoned building materials.

But he saw that there were three other houses in the middle, and there were signs of recent human activity. But those houses don't look like residences. In addition, he found traces of reclamation in the abandoned military base, with at least six circular traces inside. That's a vestige of central rotary irrigation.

When he saw these things on the plane, he had some doubts in his heart. Could it be that this military base below is not what Charlie said it is? But he was sure that the highway below was Route 50, and if there were no other military bases nearby, it should be here.

On the plane, he could also spot a layer of sand that could be seen from the sky on a county road that crossed the basin. That also means that the wind here is relatively strong. He felt that if the radiation here was really harmless. Then it's not bad for him to buy it. Of course, the price can be too high.

Just as he waited for the report of the team he hired. John, who hadn't contacted him for several days, called him and rushed over when he learned that he was at Hans's farm.

John laughed when he saw him and said, "Link, I've got a surprise for you." ”

Link handed Hannah to Lady Hammer and said, "Surprise?" as he thought of Oskeola Ranch. But he didn't ask John right away. "Let's go to my study. ”

They came to Link's study. John smiled and sat down on the couch and said, "Do you have champagne here?" You know, this is my toughest victory, and I think we should celebrate it with a little wine. ”

Link poured two glasses of champagne and brought them over, saying, "Oskeola Ranch has been taken?" ”

"I would have given up. John said with a laugh. "But I found out that the rancher owed the bank four million dollars that were due. I paid some money to get his bank manager to force him to take out a loan. ”

Link snorted and said, "As a result, he agreed to sell the ranch?"

"You're the only one bidding to him. I gave him one last quote and never contacted him again. Maybe he contacted other potential buyers during those three days, but he always came to me in the end. John smiled smugly. "He refused to sell it for four hundred dollars. When he came to me and begged me, three hundred and fifty dollars, and he was willing to sell it. Because if he doesn't sell it now, and the bank auctions it, maybe he can only sell it for three hundred dollars, or even less!"

"Three hundred and fifty dollars?"

"Yes, three hundred and fifty dollars a acre. However, you will be responsible for the transaction tax alone. This is the condition on which he will not let go. I was worried that it would annoy him, so I agreed. ”

Link smiled and raised his glass and said, "Well done!"

"Yes, I think I'm doing a great job, especially this one, I can make more. According to their rules, if the price exceeds the good price that the employer wants, he will get a reward. His contract with Link is customary.

Link laughed and said, "You don't need to remind me. It's for you, and there's not a penny missing on the check. He took a sip of champagne and said. "So, I can sign him with him at any time now?"

"Yes. He's more anxious than you. Because the bank has limited him to repay the loan by the following Monday, he will go to court to enforce it. ”

Link nodded and said, "You can contact him, I can go and sign tomorrow." "It's time for him to pick up the ranches he bought.

The ranches gave up the cattle because they still belonged to the original farmer, who did not plan to raise cattle there. That was one of the conditions that made George Baker willing to sell Baker Valley for four hundred dollars a acre, and he did so on several other ranches that did not have many cattle. So he gave the farmers a little more time to sell their cattle and move them away.

In fact, if he knew that he would buy Oskora, he might not have given up those cattle generously. Unfortunately, it was only after signing the contract that he learned that the owner of the Oskeola farm had a problem with his funds.

He remembered the land that Charlie had spoken of. He sat up straight and asked John if he knew the land.

When John heard him talk about the land, he frowned and said, "You want to buy that land? Not only is there no surface water source, but the groundwater is polluted." You know, there used to be underground nuclear tests there. The aquifer is polluted. He thought for a moment and said. "I remember someone renting land there to extract groundwater and reclaim some land. As a result, the food grown could not be sold at all because of the excessive radiation. ”

"Are you sure?"

Charlie also seems to have mentioned that groundwater may have been affected. Now that John said the same, Link was basically convinced that the groundwater there could not be used for irrigation.

"Yes. Maybe there isn't much nuclear contamination on the ground there. Only a few small-scale ground-based nuclear tests have been conducted there. You know, except for the first ground-based nuclear test, which was conducted in the desert of New Mexico, the others were conducted on the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Experiments that are conducted on the ground are underground. ”

Link didn't expect to hear such a message. If the groundwater is contaminated, then he can't really do anything but build a wind farm. However, he checked that the wind resources there are not weak, especially those highlands.

If the price is low enough, maybe he can still buy it and just use it to build a wind farm.

Moreover, the nuclear test site is on the high and low to the west, and there is a flat land for grazing in the southeast of the high and low to the east. It's not completely unusable for agriculture.

He thought that since no one bought the state government's auction four years ago, he was afraid that not many people would bid at this auction. If the state government really wants to auction it, then he can try to get a low price.

But he was still not reconciled. After all, it would be a waste to have such a large area of land that could not do anything.

He asked, "Is all the groundwater contaminated?"

John watched him ask, knowing that he still wanted to buy the land. He couldn't persuade him again, so he only said everything he knew: "I don't know much about this." However, I heard that the aquifer there is quite shallow. Maybe a second water layer. You know that there is only one layer of diving layer, but there can be multiple confined water layers. But I don't know how deep the nuclear test will be. ”

Link thought for a moment and decided that the place was still worth buying. If he's lucky enough to find an unpolluted confined water layer, he might be able to grow some food in the desert. That would probably cover the daily expenses of the wind farm.