There are some coconut groves in the southeastern part of the island, and the recently transported coconuts from Yulin have tired the traversers, so they are not interested in this poor resource. The island is barren and grassy, mainly shrubs, and the snow-white sand beach looks a bit like a tropical island, except that it is full of algae washed by the sea. Some of them are also quite economically valuable. However, it is still far away from Lingao, and it is inconvenient to use.

Bai Guoshi led a few people to search for struvite as they went, and soon found a thick accumulation of struvite by the lagoon. In spring and autumn, there are a large number of migratory birds stopping by the lake. Over the years, struvite produced by the accumulation of guano by passing migratory birds has as much as 600,000 tons on Dongsha Island.

It's summer, and the lagoon is filled with only seabirds such as seagulls, and the air smells of fish. At this time, it began to rain, and Bai Guoshi put on the hat of his jacket - it was the rainy season in the Dongsha Islands.

"This is it," Bai Guoshi struck a piece with a hammer and confirmed, "this stone, knock it down." ”

Sailors, sailors, and laborers specially assigned for the mining operation braved the rain to land on Dongsha Island and excavate struvite by hand.

Struvite is not very hard and is not troublesome to mine. The mined ore is loaded in rattan baskets and transported to Jinhae. The flock of birds resting on the shores of the lagoon was disturbed by this and suddenly flew up and down the island, cooing and cooing.

Bai Guoshi and Gao Xiaosong, who came with the ship to explore, conducted an inspection on the island. Gao Xiaosong has a great interest in Dongsha Island, but his starting point is different from Bai Guoshi's, and he values the strategic location of Dongsha Island more.

Dongsha Islands is located in the East Asia to the Indian Ocean and Asia, Africa and Australia international routes, Guangzhou, Hong Kong to Manila or Taiwan Kaohsiung route through the nearby sea area, has great shipping significance. In the 20th century, there was a weather station and a lighthouse. The Liliang Department of the Sea has long regarded this island as one of the intermediate links to Taiwan, and has a strong interest in it. Chen Haiyang specially assigned Gao Xiaosong to inspect this place.

The two of them walked all the way in the rain, and found shacks and drying racks left by fishermen along the way, and it was now summer, and the fishermen had withdrawn to the mainland, and the whole island was empty.

"There is a well!" Gao Xiaosong called out.

Not far away, sure enough, there is a stone fence of a well.

"It's useless." Bai Guoshi shook his head, "This kind of coral island can't store fresh water. There is fresh water in the sand layer, but it is easily infiltrated by seawater. The water in the well should be lighter than the seawater, and you can barely drink it to survive. ”

"It's a shame." Gao Xiaosong felt regretful, "I heard that there is a well on Dongsha Island......

"It seems that except for Woody Island, there is no fresh water available on any of the islands in the South China Sea." Bai Guoshi said, "If you want to stay on a permanent basis, you will either install desalination equipment or build a rain collection system -- the rainy season here is not short, and the amount of rainwater stored is still very large." ”

"If there is such a scarcity of fresh water, it is impossible to send people to live there without some construction." Gao Xiaosong assessed the situation of Xiadongsha Island: "The island is large enough, but there is no harbor for ships to anchor. It is inconvenient for people to enter and exit. At most, it is used as a temporary rest stop for travel to Taiwan. ”

"Look!" Bai Guoshi suddenly screamed and tugged on Gao Xiaosong's arm.

"What's the matter?" Gao Xiaosong was taken aback, and was shocked to do something, is there nothing dangerous on this Dongsha Island.

"What is this?!" Bai Guoshi's finger pointed to the sea southeast of the island.

On the surface of the sea, where at first glance there is nothing, there is a peculiar triangular iron frame. Lou is less than a meter out of the water. Now it is the low tide before the water comes out, and the waves on the sea are undulating, and it is really not easy to find if you don't look carefully.

Gao Xiaosong looked at it and felt very familiar.

"It's very similar to the mast ...... of a small boat," Gao Xiaosong hesitated, he was from the coast guard, and this thing was all too familiar, a typical tripod-style mast on an ocean-going fishing boat.

The two of them were suddenly terrified. Where did such a mast come from in this plane? Gao Xiaosong had already pulled out his pistol.

"Don't panic." He said in a deep voice, "There is no one on the island, and there is no hiding place like this." Let's take a look. ”

"Okay, okay—"

Gao Xiaosong first called Lin Chuanqing on the walkie-talkie, told him that there might be a situation on the island, and asked him to pay attention to the surrounding environment.

"What's the situation?" Lin Chuanqing was taken aback.

"It's not clear yet. Bai Guoshi and I went over to investigate. ”

"Okay, you have to be careful."

"I'll shoot and call the police if there's a situation." Gao Xiaosong looked at the surrounding environment, "The location we are going to is at the southeast end of the island. ”

"Understood."

The two men cautiously walked to the nearest promontory to the iron shelf, where the coral reef was rocky and stretched into the water. The iron frame is located in the atoll, about seventy or eighty meters from the cape. It will be even clearer that, in addition to the rust and missing components, this is the tripod mast of a ship.

Gao Xiaosong looked hard underwater, and it seemed that there was a vague shadow of a ship on the reef - because of the rain, the wind and waves were very strong, and the transparency of the sea water was not high, so he couldn't look carefully.

"There is a boat under the sea." Gao Xiaosong came to a conclusion.

"This ...... This...... What's going on...... "Bai Guoshi's teeth chattered. Obviously, in 1629, neither the Ming nor the Europeans had ships equipped with such masts.

"Didn't you have any lost or missing ships during this operation?" Gao Xiaosong is following his suspicious wife, and Zuihou was tricked into going to the Fengcheng ship, so little is known about the whole operation so far.

"Nope." Bai Guoshi is sure that "when I passed through the wormhole, I didn't lose a single ship." Now many of them are parked in Bopu Harbor. ”

"That's weird—" Gao Xiaosong naturally understood the seriousness of it. If this is indeed a modern fishing boat of the 20th century, then besides them, there are people who do not belong to this plane.

The rain became heavier and heavier, accompanied by a strong easterly wind. The waves were surging and lapping against the cape. The two men stood still, a little overwhelmed.

"Do you want to report to the Executive Committee right away?"

"Not busy." Gao Xiaosong calmed down and wiped the rain from his face, "Let's find a place to shelter from the rain first, and by the way, talk to Captain Lin, and let's discuss what to do." If you want to report, you can't just say that there is a tripod mast. ”

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Bai Guoshi said loudly, and the two of them returned from the cape. There is no shelter on the island, and there is no place to shelter from the rain, so I have to trot all the way to hide under the fishermen's scaffolding, which is actually full of holes, and it is better than nothing. Because of the heavy rain, the walkie-talkie could not be called, so the two of them had to wrap their jackets tightly and wait for the rain to stop.

Bai Guoshi looked at the torrential rain outside the scaffolding and the surging waves on the sea, and felt a sense of fear in his heart

"High Instructor." Gao Xiaosong used to be an instructor of the coast guard, and everyone called him so respectfully, "Do you think the people on this boat are still on the island?" ”

"Although Dongsha Island is not too small, there is nothing to hide people." Gao Xiaosong said, "We didn't see any new signs of human activity along the road just now, so it should be gone." He then comforted Bai Guoshi, "Maybe it's not a ship at all." ”

"It's better to do that." Bai Guoshi muttered, feeling very uneasy in his heart. He'd rather face a group of pirates from his own plane than a time-traveler who isn't on the books. If this person appeared in front of Bai Guoshi now, he would not hesitate to shoot him in the head, plus seven or eight robberies—whether this person was a man, a woman, or a child, whether he was a Chinese or a foreigner.

"Don't worry too much, even a ship could be an empty ship that was inadvertently swept into a wormhole." Gao Xiaosong saw that he was overly nervous and a little nervous, so he hurriedly comforted him.

"The place we crossed is in the Qiongzhou Strait, and this is Dongsha Island."

"This," Gao Xiaosong poured out the rain that had accumulated on his clothes, "maybe it's some kind of space-time disturbance......

After the rain stopped, Lin Chuanqing was called to the island, and after listening to Gao Xiaosong's introduction to the situation, he was taken to the cape to see the strange iron frame.

Lin Chuanqing's face turned white: "I'm familiar with this kind of mast...... This type of mast is commonly used by distant-water fishing vessels on the West Coast of the United States. ”

"So maybe it's still an American ship?"

"Quite possibly." Lin Chuanqing used to be an American fisherman, and his words are naturally very credible, "It would be nice to be able to go over and have a look." The water isn't deep, is it? ”

"It's about 8 meters." Gao Xiaosong said.

"Just dive in and have a look." Although Lin Chuanqing said this, his face was still embarrassed. 8 meters deep is nothing to him and Gao Xiaosong, just plunge down without diving equipment. The problem is that it's full of sharks, and he doesn't have the courage to swim with them.

"There seems to be diving equipment in the warehouse of the Planning Commission, as well as shark protection suits and shark repellent agents, but there are no ones on the Zhenhai."

The three of them discussed it and decided to conduct a carpet search of the entire Dongsha Island first, and if the people on the boat were really still stranded on the island, they would find them.

"There should be no one on the island," Mr. Gao said, "but just in case." ”

It doesn't matter if you can find someone or not. This situation must be blocked from the outside world, and no one else on the Zhenhai will be informed except for them. After the struvite is mined, go back and report directly to the Executive Committee

The order to dig up guano was suspended, the whole ship was put on first level alert, and all corners of the Zhenhai were put on guard, and then a carpet search of the whole island began.

"If you find someone, try to catch them alive." Gao Xiaosong ordered.

[зZcｎ.]