Chapter 1357: Still Poor, but Poor with Dignity!

There is not only no map guidance for the water route to the Mining Island Alliance, but even the distance is unclear.

Perhaps it is 300 kilometers, or 500 kilometers, or 800 kilometers.

The only way for the survivors to measure the distance is to multiply the time of their journey by their own footwork. However, many times the roads they travel are not the same. Some people are lucky and take the shortcut, while others are unlucky and take a detour for most of the day. This also leads to the extremely mixed information collected, and finally only a rough direction of advance can be obtained.

However, it is certain that the mining island surrounded by the tributary of the Dragon Fairy River can be reached by water.

The two frigates went upstream in the northeast direction, looking for some survivors to ask along the way.

At first, it was all useless information, but after going further northeast and paying some insignificant food, they finally got reliable location information from the survivors.

The straight-line distance between the Mining Island Alliance and the Mengyue Territory is only about 550 kilometers.

But considering that it may take a detour through a swamp in the middle, it is probably about 700 kilometers.

The distance can be shortened a lot if you go by water.

Through two connected tributaries, it only takes about 450 kilometers to reach the outermost mining island.

According to the cruising speed of the frigate of 60 kilometers.

Depart at 8 o'clock in the morning and just after 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

After passing a narrow tributary and rejoining the branch of Xianjiang, the lookout on the ship quickly found the target of this trip.

At the junction of water and sky, a continuous island is scattered like pearls, some large and some small, with various shapes. These islands are cleverly divided by the river, and each has unique scenery and landforms.

Unlike what you imagine, not all the mining islands in the mining island alliance are mining islands.

The islands at the entrance are relatively large, covered with dense vegetation, and the lush trees and the yellowed grass affected by the frost disaster form a peculiar picture.

On these islands, the soil is not half as poor as on land, and the terrain is relatively flat, which is a good place for human survival and development.

It is conceivable that if someone settled here, the quality of life would not be much worse than that on land.

Other smaller islands appear more desolate, but they are covered with rich mineral deposits, and the entire island is like a huge open-pit mine.

These islands have unique landforms, unusually rugged mountains and rocks, and the mineral deposits are explosively rich.

From a distance, you can clearly see large tracts of ore exposed on the surface, shining with an attractive metallic luster under direct sunlight.

"Fuck, who would have thought that there is such a place hidden in the southern fire plate, how much mineral deposits are there??!" Mala Tiechui's face flushed, his eyes fixed on those nearby mining islands!

Although the information collected from the survivors showed that the ore reserves of the mining island alliance were very terrifying.

Even if tens of thousands of people mined at the same time, it would take several years to mine all the ore.

But Mala Tiechui still habitually believes that the reason for this statement is that the miners are not efficient. Most survivors can only use the most primitive human mining method, which leads to several years of mining.

But now, everything in front of him seems to be slapping his face.

There is a high mountain in Tianyuan territory that is made up of iron mines, but it is an island on the water made of ore.

The gap between them is directly several times, or even ten times.

And it is not just an island. There are more than ten metal islands just now.

Iron ore island, copper ore island, aluminum ore island, lead ore island, zinc ore island...

"Fuck, those are not silver mines?"

The doomsday madman stood on the front side of the deck, looking at an island surrounded by dark white ore not far away, and the whole person was dumbfounded.

From a distance, many people were moving on the silver ore island at this time, as densely packed as ants.

This is too amazing.

How much silver ore can be mined from a whole silver ore island?

At this moment, the calm water surface suddenly rippled, and nearly ten small boats suddenly sailed out from the islands in all directions, approaching and surrounding them tacitly.

Unlike the standard sampans of the survivors along the way, these ten small boats actually used energy devices.

Boom boom boom.

The roar of the engine echoed on the water, and black smoke spewed out from behind the boat, forming thick smoke columns.

This behavior that can arouse the anger of environmentalists is indeed a proof of the strength of a gathering place at the moment.

There are a group of people standing on each boat, holding various weapons of different lengths.

However, according to common sense, such a group of people should be aggressive and hostile in this scene. However, facing a frigate with a length of 15 meters, this group of people really can't be fierce at all.

When they were just about 100 meters close to the frigate, nine of them stopped, and only one slowly drove up, and in the process, they kept waving red and white flags alternately, using the universal flag language on Earth to indicate peaceful communication.

"There are crossbows and pistols... well, they are just ordinary homemade guns!" The apocalypse madman picked up the telescope and carefully observed the approaching boat. When he noticed that most of the weapons held by the people on the boat were homemade guns, he immediately felt relieved.

The quality and sophistication of weapons can often reflect the strength and technological level of a gathering place.

Seeing these relatively backward homemade guns, the Doomsday Madman judged that the technological and industrial level of this mining island alliance should not be too high, but it is not ruled out that this group of people are deliberately disguising.

After all, in this doomsday, any negligence may lead to irreversible consequences.

Playing the pig to eat the tiger is often a useful trick.

Soon, when the distance between the small boat and the frigate was reduced to only fifteen meters, the driver on the small boat became obviously cautious and did not dare to move forward easily.

This is not timid or cowardly, but the huge gap between the two ships is too obvious!

They are driving a small guerrilla boat that is five meters long, made entirely of wood. Although it is light and flexible, it is completely a mantis trying to stop a car in front of the opponent's sturdy iron boat.

In this strong contrast, the people driving the iron boat do not even need to use any weapons. The huge size and sturdy hull alone are enough to pose a huge threat to them.

Of course, if the other party knew that the frigate was not made of iron, but was made of special alloys and high-plastic materials, I wonder what they would think.

"Who are you? Where are you from? What do you want to do?"

The loudspeaker was taken out, and a black man with a thick beard walked out of the boat.

"We are Chinese, from Mengyue Territory. I heard from the survivors around that you are selling metal mines to foreign countries, so I came to see the specific situation!" Spicy Hammer stood on the bow deck and took out the loudspeaker to reply.

However, this is not a handmade loudspeaker on the boat, and the sound is all shouting.

The loudspeaker module in the electric loudspeaker can easily amplify the sound ten times to ensure that everyone on the boat and even several ships in the distance can hear it clearly.

"Hey, Hu, it's you Chinese, then come over to communicate." The black man couldn't understand what the other party said, so he had to look at the Chinese in the cabin with envy and gave up the opportunity to communicate.

Hu Xiaolin, a Chinese who was called, felt as if he had received a blessing from heaven, and hurried forward to join in:

"Hello, friend. I am Hu Xiaolin from the Third Security Team of the Mining Island Alliance. I welcome you to our Mining Island Alliance. However, this is already the control area we have set. Your iron boat cannot go in any further!"

"Is that so? Is there a place to dock? Sorry, this is our first time here too."

"Okay, okay. This is our mining area, and outsiders are generally not allowed to enter. But the residential area on the other side is open to all survivors. Follow our boat and we will take you to the dock."

After a brief communication, the No. 1 frigate began to follow the boat behind the small boat and headed for the entrance to the island, a large residential island.

The No. 2 frigate used for the response received the information and hid in the tributary about 80 kilometers away from the entrance to the island.

I am not worried that the other party will have bad intentions. After all, anyone with a brain will not think that the territory with such a ship is something they can afford to offend when they see the frigate.

And as long as the Mining Island Alliance wants to develop in this area, it will definitely need some trading partners.

It took half an hour before and after, and under the command of the boat, the frigate stopped steadily at the dock.

Speaking of which, the dock here is much more luxurious than the temporary dock built in Mengyue Territory. The place near the shore has been built with bluestone to form a spacious and flat platform.

Under the platform, more than ten floats are used to differentiate different docking areas according to the size of the ship.

And at the edge of the dock, thick mooring piles are set up to fix the ships coming and going.

There are no too many complicated decorations, and every design reveals the spirit of pragmatism.

And in terms of the number of ships, there are no less than nearly a hundred large and small sampans in this area alone.

It is enough to prove that the ore on the surrounding islands is indeed of great help to the development speed of the Mining Island Alliance.

However, the frigate, which was much larger than other small boats, was too eye-catching at this dock.

During the time of docking, hundreds of survivors had gathered not far away, all of them cast curious eyes.

Hu Xiaolin, who was in charge of leading the way, had already waved at the dock, waiting for Mala Tiechui and Doomsday Madman to get off the boat, and then he rushed up excitedly and asked quickly:

"Brother, your iron boat is really awesome. When we saw it just now, we thought we were dazzled. My goodness, how did you build such a big ship? Do you have a shipyard in your territory? Ah, now you have such a ship, it is enough to walk sideways on the water!"

Hu Xiaolin's words were full of envy, and his eyes never left the frigate from beginning to end.

Obviously, he knew very well what it meant to have such a ship now.

"Haha, you're too kind. We are just lucky to have found many brothers working in shipyards on Earth, so we can build it."

Mala Tiechui did not lie. The 600 workers in Tianyuan Shipyard are all in the ship-related industry on Earth.

Otherwise, even if there are finished product drawings, it will take at least half a month to return them to ordinary people to understand the drawings.

"Hiss... there really is a shipyard."

Hu Xiaolin took a breath of cold air, his face became more respectful: "What's your name? I'm Hu Xiaolin, a member of the third security team of the Mining Island Alliance. My eldest brother Hu Shulin is the deputy captain of the second security team. I have already notified him and he will be here soon."

"Shu Yao."

"Zhuang Lun." Both of them haven't used their real names for a long time. Spicy Iron Hammer is better. When the Blue Star people come to cooperate, they always call him Director Shu, and the workers below will learn to call him that from time to time.

But the End Times Madman often hears Brother Madman, Ah Kuang, and Director Kuang, so now he is a little hesitant when he says his real name.

This little detail was instantly discovered by Hu Xiaolin, but he didn't care. It's a pseudonym.

In the world of martial arts, those who are not careful have died long ago. It's okay to be cautious.

"Brother Shu, Brother Zhuang." Hu Xiaolin made a fist gesture: "You just said that you came here because you heard that our Mining Island Alliance sells metal mines to foreign countries. Do you want to buy ore?"

"Yes, there is only one underground iron mine in our territory. It is difficult to mine and the reserves are small. So I thought about going to the surrounding area to trade some back." Spicy Iron Hammer nodded and subconsciously took out a pack of cigarette boxes without packaging nameplates from his pocket.

There are good things in it, all tobacco grown in the greenhouse.

Because of the big drop in temperature, the output is very scarce.

It is out of stock after less than 2,000 packs are made. Now the price of a pack has been raised to eight copper coins by the mole men in the city!

"Here, a piece of freshly grown tobacco?" Spicy Hammer shook out a piece and handed it over.

However, surprisingly, although Hu Xiaolin licked his lips tempted, he refused without hesitation.

"I'm sorry, Brother Shu, we have rules in our territory. We can't rashly accept items from outsiders."

"Ah, I didn't ask you to accept it, just smoke a cigarette."

"That's not okay either. This is a dead rule. If I, a member of the security team, break the rules, I will be punished!" Hu Xiaolin shook his head and took a half step back.

It can be seen that this is not a polite concession, but really following the so-called rules.

"What about the bread? A few slices?"

"No, just ask if you have anything to ask. Although we are poor, we are poor with dignity. Don't worry that we will lie because there is no benefit." Hu Xiaolin shook his head again.

This reaction shocked the two of them. They had never seen or heard of such a situation in the wasteland.

They would not accept any gifts sent to their door, and would decisively refuse them because of a rule.

Except for their own territories, even those super territories with tens of millions of people would not reach this level, right?

...