5 August 1647, inside the port of Blanca6.

Meng Hu jumped off the mule that had been riding for most of the day, and looked at the shocking scenery not far ahead. There is a "desert" of white flowers, and in the middle of the desert is a huge pink lake. Menghu stands on a higher ground, so he has a clear view of the lake.

The lake was not small, it looked like hundreds of square kilometers - maybe bigger. The water level in the lake is not high, the surface of the water is calm, and it has an eerie pink color. The water varies in color and depth, from darker in some places to lighter in others, as if it were the effect of some algae plants in the lake. These algae secrete large amounts of B-carotene, which gives the lake a rare pink color.

"This is the salt desert area reported by the Klandis, and there are countless salt lakes large and small. The local Spaniards have also discovered this salt lake for a long time, and they call the largest of them Salina Grandes, which means Great Salt Lake. Wang vigorously walked forward with a crutch deep and shallow, and said as he went.

Soft grains of salt are everywhere underfoot, and perhaps this was once the extent of the Great Salt Lake, but now the lake has dried up and a lot of salt has been steamed and exposed. Menghu took a deep breath, the smell here was very strong—the smell of the peculiar salt desert area. He grabbed a handful of loose crystalline salt from the surface and looked at it, the salt grains were coarse, and it should be mixed with a lot of sodium sulfate and stuff. However, this is not a problem, you can use the principle of different solubility of the two at different temperatures to separate them one by one, and the sodium chloride content in the salt of this place should be far greater than sodium sulfate, but I don't know if there are expensive things such as potassium salt in it. It is estimated that it is unlikely.

Unlike the salt marshes of the coastal area. It's almost all salt desert. The salt content of the soil is also quite high, and there are no other species of plants except for some low suspected Suaeda grasses, and not a single animal can be seen, as if it has become a forbidden area for life.

"There are some reeds over there, maybe the salinity is not very high." Wang Dali didn't know when he walked back to the shore of the lake, only to see him pointing in the opposite direction to the Great Salt Lake. There seems to be a swampy area that connects the large salt lake with small winding ditches along the guò side. It can be seen that in the season of abundant precipitation. These small ditches should be filled with brine, connecting the Great Salt Lake to the swampy area. But now that the water level of the salt lake has dropped, it has cut off contact with the swamp.

After hearing Wang Dali's words, Meng Hu turned his eyes and saw that it was indeed a swampy area. The salinity of the swamp area should not be as high as that of the Great Salt Lake, because the color of the water there is relatively normal, and there are some plants growing in the swamp area from time to time, such as reeds, Suaeda salsa, halophyllium, salt horn grass, Spartina alterniflora and other plants according to the terrain. However, there are still no signs of herbivores there, and the water in the swamp is also a stagnant pool, and there are no waves. There are occasional strong reflections on the shore. Menghu knew that it was a lump of salt.

In a vast area beyond salt marshes, salt lakes. It's a salt desert. The ground in these areas is filled with crystalline salts that have been formed by geological changes over an unknown number of years, and many of them have formed hard lumps. At this time, people only need to knock it down with an iron pick, and then find a way to cut it into a standard shape of salt, which can be easily transported.

"It's a treasure trove." Meng Hu looked at this strange world mixed with green, red, and white, and couldn't help grinning: "Those Krandi people are right, this is a gift from the gods, a treasure created by nature. I heard that there are quite a lot of salt lakes and salt marshes in the six regions of Argentina, including ordinary sodium chloride and sodium sulfate, as well as a large amount of potassium salt, borate and lithium salt, and the conditions for carrying out salt chemical industry are very superior. ”

"What's more, the temperature difference here is large, and the precipitation is not too much (6oo mm), which is very suitable for salt. Of course, at first, we may not need to dry salt at all, and a large number of salt blocks on those salt deserts have been cut and mined first, all in all, if we take it here, it will basically completely solve all our domestic industrial salt and edible salt, and even export a large number of them. We no longer have to work hard to dry and boil salt in the country, which is too efficient and costly. Wang Dali also clapped his palms excitedly and said, "This inspection really opened my eyes, and it was worth the trip." It's an endless treasure trove, and at the same time the scenery is so shocking, well, the expedition was a complete success, and when I went back, I wrote a report to the Government Council, and the Government Council took the lead in organizing some people to come here to set up a settlement in order to mine salt mines. ”

While the two were talking, the assistants who accompanied the team had already collected and stored some typical salt ore specimens, which had to be tested and analyzed for analysis. In addition, they collected a small number of plant specimens and lake water specimens, which they also had to bring back for analysis.

The retrieved samples were placed and tied to the mule. The road from Puerto Blanca to the Great Salt Lake is still slightly worse, with potholes, probably the same environment as the address here. If you want to open up a salt mine here, then the construction of a high-grade road is on the agenda, the railway is a little extravagant, but an asphalt or even gravel road is the bare minimum.

After the road is repaired, all the salt will be transported to Puerto Blanca for further processing, i.e. refined salt for sale back to the country. Of course, there are only a few hundred thousand people in the East Coast Republic, and of course they can't consume such huge amounts of salt, so it is also a feasible way to use this salt to make salted fish. It just so happens that the waters south of Puerto Blanca are Argentina's traditional fishing areas, where the warm Brazilian current meets the cold current of the Falkland Current, which brings abundant nutrients to the sea. Deep-sea cod and slippery fish are the two most caught aquatic products in La Plata, and tuna, squid, mackerel, and sea bream are also often caught.

The number of cod and squid fishing vessels of the South China Sea Fisheries Corporation has been steadily expanding, and the monthly catch is also rising rapidly. As of the end of last month (July), the South China Sea Fishery Company has 8 cod fishing vessels, 4 squid fishing vessels and 1 integrated supply processing vessel, with a monthly output of 25,000 cod (about 1oo tons), 4o tons of slippery fish (Argentine squid), and about 1o tons of other trash fish.

This catch is not low, the conversion of adult production is 18oo tons (it seems that it is completely incomparable with the blackwater area backed by the fishing grounds of the Kuril Islands), so at this time, it is completely possible to build Port Blanca as an important fishing port, and the fresh fish caught in the nearby waters can be coarsely processed on ships in the summer and then transported to the port for deep processing; In the winter, when the temperature is low, the fishing boats can even haul the catch directly to Puerto Blanca for processing. The processed salted fish is graded according to size and weight, and then packed into different wooden barrels, and then transported back to China for sale in large ships, and those that are not consumed in China can even be shipped to Brazil and other places for sale, and the profit margin is still considerable.

All in all, whether it is the natural superior geographical conditions of Puerto Blanca, or the abundant salt resources nearby, it is inevitable that the people of the east coast will want to seize it quickly. Now that Puerto Blanca has been occupied by the East Coasters, the next step is to fortify it with fortified castles and forts, and then build settlements and a series of associated industrial facilities to take advantage of its resources. In short, this is a land that must not be given up! Even if peace was to be negotiated with the Spaniards in the future, and thus a large area of land along the Paraná River would be returned to the Spaniards, Puerto Blanca, a port of great importance, would never be returned, because it would be too important for the people of the East Coast.

On August 9, after a tourist-like journey, the Great Salt Lake expedition led by Meng Hu and Wang Dali returned to the small town of Puerto Blanca. The town was founded by the Spaniards two or three years ago, but it was more of a small village than a small one, because except for a small stone two-story building (now requisitioned by the 6th Army on the east bank), it was all a haphazard plan of small wooden houses and thatched huts, and the inhabitants lived on wheat and fishing, and seemed to be very poor.

The town was home to a few hundred Spanish settlers, all of whom were now subjects under the rule of the Coasters, and an army of fifty Gauchos and Clandi's servants guarded the increasingly busy port for the Coasters. In the middle of last month, the local Ministry of Communications sent someone to inspect the place, and it seemed that it was intended to renovate and expand the wooden wharf here, but later the construction of the local Qingdao port took up a lot of construction materials and labor, and the matter became yellow.

However, the superior port conditions and important geographical location here are obvious, no, a small warehouse was set up here in the navy, which was specially designed to store edible salt, pickled fish, and cured meat. In addition, they set up a small sanatorium here to house the sick and wounded who might come up in the ensuing battle. After all, the westward expansion is imminent, and Port Blanca is located at the intermediate node between the mainland and the port of baleen whales, so it can still play a lot of roles.

Meng Hu, Wang Dali and others did not stay too long in Puerto Blanca. On 11 August, a ship carrying supplies returned home, and they returned to Vostochny on board. When the ships arrived at anchor in the port of Vostochny, they suddenly saw two ships flying the flag of the Republic of Genoa also quietly moored in the commercial dock area. (To be continued......)

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