Tang Ping still set off from the East China Sea Fleet military port in Qiongzhou, and this time he could go far, and the distance between the two places in a straight line was more than 4,000 kilometers.

Following the route, it is close to 5,000 kilometers.

At the average speed of about 10 knots, which is about 18 kilometers per hour, it takes about 12 days to travel at sea.

Because he was blind to the current situation on the island in Australia, Tang Ping brought a lot of various supplies.

"It's about to snow in Datang, right? It's still summer, and it's amazing! ”

When he got off the boat, Lao Cui was surprised while helping to move things.

He had been near the equator in Southeast Asia, where it was summer all year round, and now that they set foot on this island, it was just the opposite of the season in Datang, so he found it interesting.

"Now build a base on the coast!" Tang Ping looked at the map, looked at the nearby terrain with a drone, chose a relatively flat place and said: "In the future, the dock will also be built here." ”

Their current location is probably the Port of Hedland, northwest of what would become Australia, and not far southwest is Australia's main iron ore region.

However, before that, Tang Ping and the others must first establish a forward base, and then slowly explore the interior of the island.

While searching for iron ore, we are looking for traces of the aborigines.

The only information Tang Ping can get now is that there were probably tens to a million aborigines in Australia during this period.

One million sounds like a lot, but you have to know that the entire Australian island is almost 7.7 million square kilometers, which is basically four-fifths the area of modern China.

During this period, the population of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty exceeded one million.

So it's not so easy to find someone on such a large island who can help Datang open a mine.

Now Datang has the shadow of the infrastructure madness of Huaguo in later generations.

A simple forward base was completed in only about ten days, leaving nearly three thousand men, half soldiers and half craftsmen.

The task of these craftsmen was to build the base outpost, as well as the infrastructure of the iron ore excavation area and the road from the iron ore to the port.

Fortunately, Australia

In addition to iron, there are also many coal mines, and the fuel for steam engines can be solved on the spot.

Tang Ping and the others have been riding around on horseback for the past ten days, but they have not found any traces of human life.

Only then can we understand what it means to be vast and sparsely populated.

"Forget it, let's build the road first, and find someone while repairing the road to the iron mine area and the coal mining area!" At the same time, Tang Ping warned: "If you find a local native, try to protect yourself, don't conflict with the other party, you can use food and other materials to show goodwill to the other party, and then notify me immediately!" ”

You must know that some of the European colonists who first arrived here in history did not have a very pleasant relationship with the Australian aborigines, and there were bloody conflicts over this.

Because Australia is one of the flattest continents, it was not difficult for the craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty to pave the roads.

When the steamer brought them there, they left all the cinders that had burned along the way, and they just had to level the ground and lay the cinders.

As time passed, Tang Ping and the others were about to enter the iron ore mining area, and even now they could see some exposed maroon stones in their position, according to experienced craftsmen, these can be regarded as the best iron ore in Datang.

Therefore, they are very curious about the iron ore mining area mentioned by Tang Ping, and they want to see what kind of situation the mining area will look like after seeing it.

Only Tang Ping was a little anxious, and he relied on the drone to carefully search for a large area along the way, but he didn't meet anyone else.

If the road is built to the front of the iron mine area by then, and no one has been found, he is afraid that he will have to act as a miner with those Tang soldiers.

Because the terrain is flat now, Tang Ping and the others even drove a steam locomotive and began to look for people in this area.

Just when Tang Ping thought that he would still find nothing today, Xue Rengui pointed in one direction and said, "There seems to be something there." ”

Lao Cui hurriedly turned around and drove in the direction Xue Rengui said.

When I parked the car, I found that there were faint traces of a bonfire.

It's just that because it may have been a little long, there are only a few small stones in a circle and the pitch-black color burned inside.

Tang Ping stretched out his hand and touched it, nodded a little excitedly and said, "This is indeed left by burning wood." ”

After so many days, this was the only trace found, and he believed that if he followed this run, he would soon find an aboriginal tribe here.

"But in which direction did the man go?" This is the eastern highlands of Australia, and at first glance it is almost meadow.

There are also some kangaroos and other animals moving on it, because it is the first time they have seen a steam locomotive, and they have no intention of avoiding it.

Lao Cui and the others thought it was novel when they saw the kangaroo at first, but after they got two to eat, they were not very interested.

The meat is too chai, and even if star anise is added to cook, it still has a strong fishy smell.

"If you are active, you must be inseparable from the water source, so let's see where there is a water source such as a river." Lao Cui reminded.

Tang Ping nodded: "Makes sense!" ”

As he spoke, he began to control the drone to fly to the top and began to reconnoitre.

He soon spotted a forest in the distance, with a river jumping behind it.

"It should be in that direction!"

They drove to the edge of the forest, and when they couldn't get in, they just left it outside.

Who else can steal a car here in this day and age?

Entering this kind of forest, everyone is vigilant, because all kinds of animals, insects and even some plants can pose dangers.

But fortunately, Lao Cui and Lao Du are experts in this area, and with the support of various equipment provided by Tang Ping, they can move forward faster in the forest.

"Here!" Xue Rengui pointed to a bush and said, "There are blood stains." ”

Tang Ping and the others looked over, and sure enough, there were some dark red blood stains.

"How long has it been?" Tang Ping asked, "Is it human?" ”

"About three days." Lao Cui touched it: "But the climate here is drier, maybe the time is shorter." Whether it's human blood or not is not good to say. ”

"Well, at least we're not going in the wrong direction!" Tang Ping pointed ahead: "Keep looking." ”

The drone hovered in the sky looking for traces of the aborigines, while Tang Ping and the others were looking for clues on the ground.

"Here!" Soon they found new traces of blood, as well as scratches on the trees.

"It should be a man and some kind of beast fighting, and the blood is relatively fresh."