The New Kramakan Desert is located in Mingzhou. It is nearly 700 kilometers long from north to south and is more than 380 kilometers wide from east to west. Its total area exceeds 260,000 square kilometers. It is the largest desert in Mingzhou and even the Firefly Federation. The surface water sources in the New Kramakan Desert are extremely lacking. Although there are oasis, the number is quite limited and the distribution is irregular. Moreover, the area of ​​these oasis is rarely more than 1,000 acres. In addition, there are many species of ferocious beasts living in the desert. Even if armed personnel enter it, it is difficult to ensure personal safety, so it has been regarded as a forbidden area for humans for hundreds of years.

The west side of the New Kramakan Desert is bordered by the West Sea, and the east side is connected to the Holy Cross State. The north side is the hinterland of Mingzhou, and the south side is the Xiliu Border Region newly opened in Mingzhou in the past 30 years. Although it is now only an area of ​​more than 6,000 square kilometers, it is stationed in nearly 30% of the troops in Mingzhou!

The vast and dangerous New Kramakan Desert once blocked the Mingzhou people's journey south for nearly a hundred years. It was not until the shipbuilding and maritime technology achieved a new decisive breakthrough that Mingzhou people were able to cross the barriers of the natural dangers of the New Kramakan Desert from the sea and open up the Xiliu Border Region. Mingzhou also completely annexed the New Kramakan Desert.

However, although the new Kramakan Desert has been completely included in the territory of Mingzhou, it still has to rely on the logistics support of the Xiliu Border Region to transport by sea. However, the West Sea is full of dangers. Even the giant steel ships with thousands of tons dare to sail in the near-shore armed manner, and do not dare to go deep into the sea to face the ferocious beasts in the sea. This undoubtedly greatly limits the logistics supply capacity of Mingzhou to the Xiliu Border Region.

But even so, there are still frequent reports of ships transporting by sea that were in distress or even sunk, which forced the Mingzhou government to pay more attention to how to open up the supply channel of the New Kramakan Desert. Mingzhou is the sea to the west, neighboring states Holy Cross to the east, and federal capital and Tomsk to the north. Only by moving south can we expand our territory.

Qingyundu is located on the northwest side of the New Kramakan Desert, about 90 kilometers away from the coastline, with a total permanent population of nearly 7,000 people. Including mobile caravans, there are often more than 10,000 people. It is an important town in Huaile County under the jurisdiction of Xinxuan Prefecture, and it is also the largest and most cutting-edge supply area and an important cargo distribution center for the hinterland of Mingzhou to enter the New Kramakan Desert. It has been more than 130 years since the town was established.

After leaving the edge of the new Kramakan Desert, Feng Delu and his party quickly embarked on the post road leading to Qingyundu, and everyone felt a lot more relaxed.

After walking for about half an hour, a stone bridge appeared in front of him that was enough for four horses to run parallel.

Lin Zhiyu and his group rode their horses onto the bridge. Lin Zhiyu gently pulled the reins and watched the bridge. Lin Zhixuan, who was walking with him, looked along his gaze and said in surprise: "Brother Qi, what are you looking at?"

Lin Zhiyu and Feng Delu successfully led the saber-toothed lizard away and returned safely, and were obviously valued by Feng Delu, which immediately changed his position in the team.

After Lin Zhiyu and Feng Delu returned to the team, they seemed depressed and did not return to normal until they left the new Kramakan Desert. As his cousin, Lin Zhixuan naturally got the moon first and surrounded him and took care of him carefully. For this reason, Feng Delu also spared Lin Zhixuan a lot of miscellaneous work to ensure that he had enough time and energy to take care of Lin Zhiyu.

"The water level of Shiliang River has dropped a lot, and this year is probably another drought year." Lin Zhiyu frowned. The reason why Qingyundu was able to successfully establish and last for more than a hundred years is because the Shiliang River under the bridge provides it with relatively sufficient water sources. It can be said that Shiliang River is the mother river of Qingyundu.

However, in recent years, although Lin Zhiyu has not known the specific statistics on precipitation in Xinxuanfu, he feels that the water level of Shiliang River is declining year by year, and the water quality is much worse than before. The land near Qingyundu has few fertile land, most of the Gobi and saline-alkali land. If there is not enough water source, the fertile land that can be cultivated will be abandoned or even degraded.

The grain and vegetables in Qingyundu were originally unable to be self-sufficiency. Every year, they need to purchase large quantities from other counties in Xinxuanfu to ensure the living needs of residents.

Moreover, most of these grains are transported to Qingyundu by water. The continuous decline in the water level of Shiliang River will also lead to some ships being withdrawn from the transportation market due to possible stranding. In that case, it will cause tight transportation capacity and may even have to be transported by land, which will undoubtedly increase transportation costs and lead to a significant increase in the prices of grain and vegetables in Qingyundu.

This is undoubtedly bad news for Lin Zhiyu's family, who is not well-off at hand, and it has to worry about it.

"There is nothing to do about this. I heard that the rainfall in the entire mansion this year is generally less than in previous years. In some places, it has not rained for two or three months." Lin Zhixuan sighed and said, "We Qingyun have not had decent precipitation in the past five months." His family is in a better situation than Lin Zhiyu's family, but it is also very good.

"Don't Duli have been discussing building dams and rivers at the mouth of the river. Unless the entire Xinxuanfu has a severe drought, Shiliang River will not be short of water." Hearing the conversation between the two, Ping Wujia, who was walking in front, turned his head and said, "Brother Lin Qi, do you think this is the reason?"

"Hey, that means that the stinky water in the Shiliang River cannot flow out in time. I don't think that is a good thing. And the Linhai in the mouth of the river can agree?" Lin Zhixuan shook his head and retorted that over the years, with the vigorous development of industry in Xinxuanfu in the upper reaches of the Shiliang River, a large amount of industrial and domestic wastewater has been discharged into the water body. As the Shiliang River section in Qingyundu in the downstream, there is a clear feeling about this.

Thirty or forty years ago, residents of Qingyundu could also directly draw water from Shiliang River for domestic use. Now most people have changed to using well water, which has also made the business of digging wells and selling water in Qingyundu very prosperous. For this reason, Qingyundu and Linhai in Hekou have always had quite an objection in the county.

The group had already arrived in front of the capital while talking. Qingyundu did not have a formal city wall, but just used earth to raft out the top of the earth wall about six meters high. This was mainly because when Qingyundu was established more than a hundred years ago, it was still a place where ferocious beasts were rarely traveling. Without the protection of the earth wall and guards, no one could fall asleep peacefully at night. Now, the ferocious beasts in this area have been continuously suppressed by humans for more than a hundred years. Those who did not escape into the new Taklamakan Desert have basically been killed so as not to pose any obvious threat to humans. Moreover, the annual precipitation here is limited, and there are few rainstorms and heavy rains. Even if there is no blue brick wall, it will not cause much damage to the earth wall. It only takes a little repair every year.

"Master Feng is back, it's been a bit long this time!" The guard at the door smiled and greeted Feng Delu, who was in charge, and then looked at them and said with a smile, "It seems that you have gained a lot this time? By the way, did the big sandstorm a few days ago not affect you?"

Feng Delu casually stuffed a bill worth five silver dollars and sighed: "Why didn't it affect? ​​More than half of the man's hand was almost destroyed. Later, he bumped into a saber-toothed lizard. Fortunately, God blessed me, and everyone escaped this disaster by chance."

"Then you guys are really lucky. As the saying goes, will you have good luck if you survive a disaster?" The guard calmly put away the banknotes and smiled, "You are not saying this?" Feng Delu and his group had more than a dozen bulging leather bags on the horse's back. Although they didn't know what prey they were in, they would definitely have a happy harvest.

Although the New Kramakan Desert is a bad place, it is also where people in Qingyundu make a living. The old saying goes, relying on mountains and water to eat water. These people naturally can only eat deserts by relying on deserts. Fortunately, although the New Kramakan Desert lacks water sources and makes it difficult for humans to survive, it is the largest desert in the Federation. More than 70% of the desert specialties in the federal market can be said to be from the New Kramakan Desert!

It is precisely with the support of these desert specialties that Qingyun Du was able to maintain its original prosperous scene after the Mingzhou military decided to give up opening up land passages and switch to sea to cross the New Kramakan Desert.

Caravans leave every day, and new caravans come every day. There are endless people from outsiders who think of "gold-seeking" in the new Kramakan Desert.

In Qingyundu, the proportion of permanent locals and foreign populations almost reached one to one, which also brought generous taxes to the Qingyundu Yamen. He was the gatekeeper, although he was only the lowest member of Qingyundu official, could also live a happy life of the middle class.
Chapter completed!