The rainy season lasted for more than three months, and the hot and humid southwest monsoon finally stopped, the rain became less and less, and the continuous sunny days finally reappeared, and the floodwaters that flooded the mountains below finally gradually disappeared

Zhou Rong and the others, who were tormented by dampness and mildew, were naturally in a good mood, although the next weather may be hot, but they now live by the lake, there is no shortage of water, and there is no shortage of food, for them, it is obviously more comfortable than the rainy season.

With the threat of flash floods out of the way, their range of activities has increased, and they have begun to explore more uncharted areas in order to learn more about the island and find more resources.

In this process, they maintain a high level of vigilance, as much as possible not to make a sound, do not leave a trace, so as not to be targeted by others first.

Now they all have come to believe that it can be a very dangerous thing to expose themselves rashly.

They explored the area within five kilometers of the vicinity one after another, and there were still some gains.

They found more than a dozen useful plants, including bananas, bamboo, sisal, cassava, and a variety of tropical fruits, as well as ginger, cloves, tomatoes, sugar cane, kapok, yerba mate, and so on.

Some of these are crops that everyone knows, and some are recognized by Fang Jinyan alone

Only he knew these strange plants.

For example, everyone has seen ginger as a seasoning tuber, but if you want to talk about its plant, not to mention people in the city, even people in the countryside may not have seen it. After all, only a very small number of farmers have planted this crop to sell, and more people have planted it after the price increase in previous years. But it's still a minority.

Even the more famous plant such as the clove tomato is not the time to bloom and bear fruit. Ordinary people may not be able to recognize it

Everyone is not surprised by this, and what he said may not be the truth when asked anyway.

Although his identity was suspicious, they didn't see any ill will on his part and couldn't think of any intentions he had against them, so it didn't matter.

Besides, this is a good thing, someone can recognize so many plants, it is better than passing through Baoshan empty-handed

Ginger and cloves are both good things, the former can be fishy, and the latter is also a very useful seasoning. At first, the Arabs were crazy about it, and the whole world searched for this thing, and they used it to cook fish and animal meat, except for the first time, they didn't have the experience to put too much, and the taste was quite good for the next few times

In addition to plants, they also found some ores, to be precise, Fang Jinyan discovered, such things. No one really recognized him but him

Fang Jinyan found a small-scale open-pit hematite on a laterite hillside.

Zhang Hongbing was extremely excited at that time, saying that they could make iron!

He apparently thought that as long as iron ore was found. You can smelt raw iron, and even steel

As for how to refine, of course, it depends on Fang Jinyan

But Fang Jinyan poured cold water on him. Sue him that these iron ores are useless now, with the manpower and resources and materials in their hands now. It is impossible to build an iron-making furnace, let alone a blast furnace for steelmaking

He also sued him that this is a volcanic island. The probability of discovering coal is almost zero, and if there is no coal, charcoal can only be used to replace coking coal, and the requirements for manpower and technology are also higher, even if he knows how to do it, they are simply not enough.

Zhang Hongbing was naturally a little disappointed, and the others were similar

Fang Jinyan can't do anything about it, he is not a god, and there are some things that he can't accomplish at all now

Soon, however, Fang Jinyan found another ore that was now more useful to them.

They found saltpeter in a cave at a high altitude!

According to Fang Jinyan's speculation, these saltpeters should be the droppings of birds or bats that gathered in this cave in the early years, formed by long-term weathering, similar to saltpeter in northern Chile!

This ore can be said to be of great significance to them, because it is one of the three major raw materials for making gunpowder, and it is also the rarest one!

Of the other two, charcoal is the easiest to obtain, and it is available by cutting down trees and burning it, and sulfur is also very widely distributed in nature, especially in places with volcanoes, and it is quite easy to find sulfur

The formation conditions of saltpeter are very harsh, and it is difficult to generate in a general environment, otherwise the three South American countries would not have had a war for this resource

Although the saltpeter reserves here are very small and not worth mentioning compared to the mines in northern Chile before they were depleted, they are now far enough for them, after all, they are not industrialized.

All they needed to do was make some gunpowder, and then some weapons to use against the threats they might face later

Their best weapon now was nothing more than the military knife that Fang Jinyan had found, and the others didn't even have an iron knife without a better weapon, if they really encountered a powerful enemy, it would be too dangerous

They have long thought about configuring gunpowder, but the problem is that the raw materials are difficult to find, the most difficult to find is saltpeter, not to mention this small island, in ancient China, it is difficult to find natural saltpeter, at that time many people were scraping latrines to obtain saltpeter

I didn't expect that now there is nowhere to find the iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get it, and there is a natural saltpeter on this island!

Of course, if it weren't for Fang Jinyan, they would definitely not know that this was saltpeter, and it is estimated that even if they entered this cave, they would think it was just some ordinary stones and soil

You can't blame them, normal people who know what saltpeter looks like!

Fang Jinyan is not a normal person at all, and he can't be compared to him!

Of course, it's a little too early for them to be happy, they still have to find the brimstone, but they are not in a hurry, anyway, the exploration mission continues, and they will have to look for it later

And before that, Fang Jinyan asked them to collect some saltpeter back, and then used the ice cube to make it!

The process of saltpeter ice making is very simple, that is, to dissolve saltpeter into water, and when saltpeter is dissolved, it will absorb a lot of heat, which is enough to make the water freeze, of course, the frozen water and the dissolved water are to be isolated

So they had ice cubes, and Zhou Rong and a few other girls even squeezed out sugarcane juice and some juice to make popsicles.

I have to say that when the dry season comes, it is so happy to eat sweet ice cubes! (To be continued......)