The customs post reopened, and the presence of the fair scale earned praise from the merchants and peddlers who came to buy and sell. With this, they no longer had to worry about being cheated. Leaders of various departments also sent people back. Firstly, to have their tribes begin mining mineral resources, and secondly, to organize teams to transport livestock to Shenyang for sale.
After dealing with the customs post, Tan Zong sent someone to report that the oil tanks were ready. After dismissing the messenger, Fang Er went to the workshop. The original helicopter shell was scrapped, but fortunately, the engine's damage was not too severe, and Zhao Gang had led people to repair it, installing a new fuselage. The helicopter was parked outside the workshop. Fang Er had Zhang Tian and Lai Yifa called over and took them aboard the helicopter.
"My Lord, where are we going?" Zhang Tian asked Fang Er in the co-pilot's seat.
"To the mine, and then we'll fly around the area to see if there are any rivers," Fang Er replied.
"Yes, My Lord."
The helicopter took off, reaching the mine in less than ten minutes, then ascended higher and continued flying south. Fang Er scanned the area below with binoculars, searching for waterways. He still had dozens of boats in his spatial storage. If he could find a waterway, he could use boats to transport oil tanks to the oil mine, then out to sea, and finally up the Hai River into the Grand Canal. Lai Yifa, experiencing a helicopter ride for the first time, was extremely excited. However, seeing Fang Er carefully observing the terrain outside, he didn't dare to make a sound.
After half an hour, a glint of light on the water appeared in the binoculars. "Over there, let's go take a look!" Fang Er lowered his binoculars and pointed towards the direction where he had seen the water. The helicopter flew towards it, and soon a large river appeared in view. The river was two to three hundred meters wide, but its depth was unknown. Using a weight tied to a rope from the helicopter, they measured it, finding the river channel to be over ten meters deep in the middle. "Deep enough for navigation!" Fang Er instructed Zhang Tian to pilot the helicopter along the river. It was only three hundred li from the oil mine, so there was no fear of running out of diesel.
The river wound its way, sometimes wide, sometimes narrow. After flying for a while, the river suddenly widened, forming a lake, and then flowed out from the other side. The helicopter continued forward. The advantage of flying was that when encountering river bends, they could simply ascend, use binoculars to find the river's course ahead, and fly directly towards it. Following the river to its end, Fang Er was surprised to discover that this river flowed into the sea not far from the oil mine! This waterway was indeed perfectly suited for their needs. The closest distance from the iron mine to this unnamed river was only thirty to forty li. The tidal flats were covered in reeds with no other obstructions. The smoke pillars rising from the refining furnaces indicated the direction for Fang Er and his group. The helicopter landed near the refining furnaces. Seeing this, Bi Deng quickly realized Fang Er had arrived and hurried to greet him with his men.
"My Lord!"
Zhang Tian turned off the engine. After the rotors stopped spinning, Fang Er jumped out and walked up to Bi Deng, asking casually, "How is the progress?"
"Reporting to My Lord, the oil well can spew a furnace of crude oil every hour. We can refine twice a day, and with two furnaces, that's about five thousand jin of diesel per day. We've run out of oil barrels, so I've only allowed one furnace to operate," Bi Deng replied, looking troubled.
"Alright, Fang Er didn't realize the oil was already being produced here until now. It's quite a distance from Shenyang, and the oil started flowing yesterday. The messengers sent back should be arriving in Shenyang by now," Fang Er reassured Bi Deng. "Don't worry, the oil tanks will be delivered tomorrow, and you'll be busy then."
After giving Bi Deng some peace of mind, Fang Er took a look around the refining furnaces. Zhang Tian refueled the helicopter with the freshly produced diesel, and the three of them flew back. "This thing is so convenient. We flew back to the county lord's mansion in an hour for the three hundred li journey."
He instructed Zhuzi to mobilize the entire First Division. From the iron mine to the river, there wasn't even a road, only dense forests. They had to clear a temporary path. With over two thousand people working together, they cleared a two-meter-wide path in just one day. Zhuzi took a battalion to guard the area and build a temporary dock. The rest of the soldiers were to return and transport the oil tanks. Fang Er ambled away, disappearing from everyone's sight.
Just as Zhuzi noticed Fang Er was gone and was preparing to search for him with concern, a forty-meter-long longline fishing boat appeared before them. The system was very helpful; it provided complimentary items for anything exchanged that required energy. For example, the walkie-talkies were fully charged, and the fishing boat was full of fuel. Very thoughtful. Other boats were too large to navigate inland rivers. This fishing boat was the smallest Fang Er had chosen from his spatial storage. It had a pure white hull, looking incredibly beautiful. The boat docked in the middle of the river, and Fang Er appeared on the deck.
Zhuzi was stunned. "Where did My Lord get this large vessel? Could it be that besides the workshops I know of, My Lord has other secret workshops elsewhere?" Well, the thoughts of superiors were always unfathomable. He stopped thinking about it and continued to direct the soldiers to drive wooden stakes into the water. Once the oil tanks arrived, the temporary dock could be used.
Twenty oil tanks were piled onto the deck. Fang Er personally piloted the boat along the river towards the oil mine. Zhuzi took a company along, while the other soldiers returned to Shenyang. Fang Er asked them to relay a message to Zhang Tian, telling him to fly the helicopter to the oil mine and to have the soldiers stationed there set up a temporary dock near the mine as well. This boat would be left at the oil mine for transportation in the future.
Sailing a boat was a completely unfamiliar task for Fang Er. Fortunately, it was a metal-hulled boat; otherwise, he would have sunk it halfway. It took them a full day of stumbling along the way to reach the estuary near the oil mine. Zhang Tian had not only arrived earlier but had also finished building the temporary dock! The road from the oil mine to the dock had even been cleared by a bulldozer.
After the boat docked, the empty oil tanks were pushed from the deck into the bulldozer's bucket, two at a time, and then transported to the refining furnaces. The twenty oil tanks were only enough for three days of use. After three days, these oil tanks would be filled with diesel and delivered to Fang Er's designated locations to establish gas stations. As for personnel, five platoons were to be drawn from the First Division's Third Regiment, which had remained stationed there, with each gas station having a platoon responsible for its guard.
Upon returning to Shenyang, Fang Er placed a production order with Tan Zong for five hundred more oil tanks. He also took the opportunity to release another fishing boat for the transportation of empty oil tanks. With the existence of a second transmigrator, Fang Er no longer cared about the details that might arouse suspicion. As long as he didn't produce things out of thin air in front of others, he let them guess whatever they wanted.