As early as before the crossing, the executive committee had a consensus on the advantages and disadvantages of Sanya, and the lack of coal underground was probably one of the biggest shortcomings of this place, and the crossers would have to use charcoal as the main industrial fuel for a long time in the early stage. The Executive Committee initially thought that this disadvantage would not have a particularly large impact other than the inability to make steel on a large scale, but it was clear that everyone had made a big mistake in this matter.

If the cement kiln cannot be put into operation in the short term, then the follow-up factories, residences, and even the bunker batteries that the military and police department has been eagerly looking forward to will become a castle in the air. The series of delays in the project plan caused by this will make the Executive Committee dare not continue to think about it.

"In any case, the cement problem must be solved as much as possible!" Tao Donglai set the tone at the beginning of the on-site meeting: "Everyone knows the importance of cement, so I won't emphasize it again." People who know technology say that if we can't provide a large amount of anthracite or coke in the short term, what compromise do we have to get the cement kiln into production?"

"There's no other way, boss, let's put on the concrete!"

After everyone was silent for a long time, Liu Shanxia, the second-in-command of the Ministry of Construction, finally spoke. Although he is not from the Ministry of Industry, after all, he has worked on projects for many years, and has encountered various problems in construction, and he still has some understanding of the production technology of certain materials.

The so-called soil cement is a kind of simple original version of cement, this kind of cement paper does not need complex equipment and technological process, only need to crush the limestone and clay, directly put it into the kiln to calcinate, and then grind the clinker out into powder. Moreover, the calcination temperature of this kind of soil cement does not need to reach 1450 degrees like Portland cement, as long as 600 to 800 degrees is enough. In order to enhance the performance, it is also possible to grind the slag ash of ironmaking and mix it evenly into the clinker. The quality of cement produced by this kind of soil method is naturally not as good as that of regular Portland cement, but in the case of insufficient objective conditions, it can actually meet the general construction needs.

It is precisely because of the simplicity of this method of making soil cement that a large number of small cement factories in China still use this technology until the 60s of the 20th century. Tao Donglai has been engaged in the real estate industry all these years, although he has not used soil cement, but at least he has heard of it, and he knows the storage of this thing, so he made a decision at the moment: "Then hurry up and try to make a trial, first make a little sample to see how the effect is, and if the strength reaches the standard, it will be put into production." It's already May, and we're starting to enter the typhoon period, and we don't even have a brick house yet, so we have to hurry!"

The trial production of soil cement was quickly sent to the construction site for testing, the effect is unusually good, after drying fully meet the performance requirements of building materials adhesive, but there is a significant gap in strength compared with Portland cement. But as far as the current application range of the cross-public is concerned, the performance of this kind of soil cement has basically reached the standard, at least it can firmly bond the stones together, and can even be used to make concrete with little strength requirements.

"There's still too little coal!" The members of the Executive Committee who received the good news did not immediately get rid of their troubles.

Now, with the rollout of industrial projects, more and more places need industrial fuels, and the production of charcoal has begun to show bottlenecks. Although the three existing charcoal kilns have been operating around the clock, and the two new ones will soon be put into operation, the output is not growing as fast as consumption. Especially the newly commissioned iron-making furnace is simply a bottomless pit.

Because of the lack of coal resources in Sanya, the ore currently mined by Tiandu Iron Mine can only be made by charcoal. To refine one ton of pig iron, two tons of iron ore are consumed, and the amount of charcoal consumed is about seven tons, which is quite amazing for the current charcoal production. Therefore, the Executive Committee intends to expand the production capacity of charcoal again, but then it will inevitably need to allocate more manpower to the logging team to cut down trees, which will put more pressure on the already strained human resources.

At this time, the only one who is not bothered by charcoal production is probably the Ministry of Agriculture. After the completion of spring plowing and spring planting, the Ministry of Agriculture did not stop the pace of development, but continued to reclaim agricultural land in the valley area along the east bank of the Tiandu River. In view of the fact that the upstream area will become a heavily polluted metallurgical and chemical industry area in the future, the Ministry of Agriculture has taken precautions and has no intention of planting food crops in this area on a large scale, but will mainly use the newly opened arable land to grow cash crops, especially oil crops.

Mr. Yuan, who specializes in cash crops, had already planned a planting plan for the Ministry of Agriculture when he was preparing agricultural materials before the crossing. Hainan's tropical climate is very suitable for growing various cash crops, and in Mr. Yuan's plan, there are four types of cash crops as the main lineup: spices, rubber, oilseeds, and sugar.

In the 17th century, the spice trade in East Asia was also very famous in later generations, and the Dutch East India Company made its fortune by monopolizing the trade in several spices such as nutmeg, cloves, and pepper in Southeast Asia. In the European market, these spices from the Orient were as popular as Chinese silk and porcelain, and the gross profit of spices trafficking between Asia and Europe was nearly twenty times greater. As a result, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and Great Britain were the maritime powers of the time, and the importance of spices in the trade between countries was evident.

Against this historical background, it is only natural that the Executive Committee will not let go of the spice trade, which is an extremely lucrative and unmarketable business. In addition to these popular spices, the Ministry of Agriculture has also cultivated on a small scale turmeric, the main ingredient of curry, ginger nanjiang, the main ingredient of five-spice powder, and coriander, which is indispensable for tom yum soup, as well as famous spices from Southeast Asia, such as Thai pepper, basil, and maoong. If the spice trade is more smooth in the future, the Executive Committee even intends to promote the cultivation of these high value-added spice crops on a large scale in the mountainous areas controlled by the Li people, so as to gradually make the Li people strictly dependent on the crossing people in terms of food supply, so as to achieve the goal of controlling the Li people in disguise.

As for the importance of rubber to modern industry, it is self-evident, not to mention anything else, just the two applications of rubber tires and seals, which are enough to make the industrialization process of the people go up a level. The Ministry of Agriculture planted a total of 10 acres of rubber saplings on the vacant land cleared by the logging team, which would have to wait five or six years before they could be tapped. However, the Executive Committee is not in a hurry about this, and after the opening of foreign trade routes, it may be possible to import rubber from other parts of Southeast Asia on a small scale within a year or two, and start planting rubber trees now, more for long-term considerations.

In the selection of oil crops, Mr. Yuan finally settled on oil palm. The oil content of the fruit of this oil crop is more than 50%, and an oil palm can produce 30 to 40 kilograms of palm oil per year, and the production capacity per mu reaches about 600 kilograms, which is two to three times that of coconut and seven to eight times that of peanuts. Palm oil is not only used for food, but also to make soaps, industrial lubricants, and more.

Most importantly, the Ministry of Chemical Industry has long proposed a plan to manufacture biodiesel, and palm oil is an ideal material. Even if only a limited amount of diesel fuel can be produced on a small scale, the time and effort spent on this project will be well worth it in the eyes of the Executive Committee. Of course, before that, we have to wait patiently for three years for these oil palms to grow slowly.

In the choice of sugar crops, sugarcane has certainly become the first choice. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the main production area of cane sugar was in the Leizhou area of Guangxi, and Zhanjiang was still the largest sugar production base in China in later generations. The Executive Committee hopes to develop a sugarcane planting base in the southern part of Hainan Island that can rival Leizhou, and use the advanced technology in its hands to defeat the sugar merchants on the mainland in terms of production costs.

The reason why the Executive Committee agreed with the Ministry of Agriculture to choose sugarcane as one of the main cash crops for promotion and planting is not only because of the prospect of cane sugar as a product in foreign trade, but also because sugarcane is very suitable for winemaking. The famous rum was made from sugar cane, and the sugar cane soju, invented by Native Americans, was very popular when it was introduced to Europe in the 18th century, but now that the people have traveled to this time and space, it is clear that the invention of this wine will have to change hands sooner.

As a commodity, wine has always been a stock that does not worry about sales. However, the current situation of the crossing is the lack of a large and stable supply of food, and grain wine will not be produced as a commodity in the short term, and the production of rum obviously does not have this concern. As one of the six major distilled spirits in later generations, the Executive Committee believes that this soju made from sugar cane will surely open up the European market in the process of foreign trade and is a commodity worthy of great attention. Growing sugarcane can produce two products that open up the Eastern and Western markets at the same time, so it is no wonder that the Executive Committee did not hesitate to accept Old Man Yuan's plan.

Although the Ministry of Agriculture's cash crop plan is good, it will take time to realize it slowly, and it will take about a year from now on to produce sugarcane that can be produced at the earliest. But the people at the Ministry of Agriculture don't plan to sit idle, and there are agricultural projects in the works that will yield faster results.

More than 10 days after the transplanting was completed, the Ministry of Agriculture began stocking grass carp fry in the paddy fields. According to the plan of the Ministry of Agriculture, more than 500 fish fry should be put into each mu of paddy field, but because of the rush of time, the fry breeding could not keep up, and the final stocking density was only about 200 per mu, and a small number of carp and crucian carp fry were also matched.

This kind of rice and fish farming technology is a more common practice in later generations, which can not only promote rice production, but also take into account fish farming, but after the local Ming people of the farm commune saw it, they were all stunned to see whether these Haihan people like to eat fish, and the fish in the sea are not enough to eat, and even the rice fields have to raise fish!