Chapter 263: The Second Ship

Chapter 263: The Second Ship

Chapter 263 The Second Ship

12 month 19 day.

At the same time, the second Blue Whale airship No. 1002 was put into trial operation.

Jiang Miao and his wife also left Beijing secretly, but they did not take the same high-speed train.

Blue Whale 1002 also flew northeast from Minqin Airport, crossing the Tengger Desert, the Loess Plateau, and the Yanshan Mountains, and arrived at Mulan Farm in Zherim City.

At the Zhelimu Airport, after replacing the battery box, six refrigerated containers loaded with 6 tons of frozen beef and mutton were lifted.

Airship No. 1002 flew south from Zhelimu Airport, crossed the eastern part of the Yanshan Mountains, and flew directly to the Bohai Sea. Then it crossed the Jiaodong Peninsula, stuck to the coastline, and crossed the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and Ryukyu Strait.

After entering the South China Sea, head straight for Qiongzhou Island.

Since it was winter and northerly winds prevailed in East Asia, the airship No. 1002, heading south, flew with the wind all the way and its speed could basically be maintained at 120 kilometers per hour.

The total flight distance is about 3189 kilometers.

Total time: 26 hours and 33 minutes.

The charge for one container is 20409.6 yuan.

The average transportation cost of each ton of fresh beef and mutton is about 691.8 yuan, which is equivalent to about 0.69 yuan per kilogram.

The Qiongdong Coast Airport has not yet been officially completed, but this does not prevent it from being put into use.

This is another major feature of airship transportation, which is that it can be moored and loaded and unloaded under simple conditions.

The reason for planning and building an airport specifically is, on the one hand, to plan the airship transportation system; on the other hand, to reduce the energy consumption of the airship itself.

After all, when temporarily mooring and loading and unloading in places with incomplete supporting facilities, the airship must descend to a height of about 20 meters close to the ground for safety reasons, and the floating posture auxiliary control system needs to operate at full capacity.

At this time, airship No. 1002 used this method to forcibly dock on the open space of Qiongdong Coast Airport.

The temporary fleet assisting with mooring and loading and unloading around was also very nervous at this time because the wind was a bit strong today.

Fortunately, the airship is quite heavy, and the sunlight in Qiongzhou is strong during the day, which shines on the silicon carbide tube photovoltaic panels on the upper part of the airship, generating a large amount of electricity, and the posture control system is running at full capacity.

As the shelves were unloaded, six refrigerated containers landed on the platform of the tractor together with the shelves. A special tractor pulled the shelves to the container loading and unloading yard one kilometer away, where there was a special container crane that could quickly transfer the containers to an ordinary tractor.

In a small town near the airport.

Many people saw this huge creature floating in the air.

The black and blue airship can be seen just outside the door of a tobacco shop.

The boss held a cigarette in his mouth and watched the shelves and containers slowly descend from the belly of the airship. He took a puff of cigarette and said, "Huh... This thing is so big, how come it can only carry six containers?"

The owner of the lottery shop next door also came out and said, "Yeah! This is just for show but not for use!"

"Lao Liu, give me 100 yuan for the Double Color Ball. Here are the numbers." The tobacco shop owner took out an expired lottery ticket from his wallet.

A taxi driver also leaned against a nearby lamp post and said, "You don't understand. This airship flew over from the south of the desert."

"Mo Nan? So far?" Old Liu from the lottery shop took the hundred yuan.

The taxi driver took a photo with his phone and replied, "I watched the Yinfu live broadcast yesterday. The people from Hailufeng Company said that this is the second Blue Whale transport airship. Look at the number LJ1002, which means it is the second one."

The owner of the tobacco shop handed the taxi driver a cigarette and said, "You flew so far, and you only transported six containers. The fare is not cheap, right?"

"Let me take a look." The taxi driver put the cigarette to his ear, then opened the note platform and found the video introduction of Hailufeng Company at Zhelimu Airport yesterday. After a while, he looked up:
"The charge for a container from Mo Nan to Qiongzhou is just over 20,000 yuan."

The tobacco shop owner scratched his temples and said, "More than 20,000? Isn't that too high?"

"Not much." The taxi driver, who used to be a truck driver, shook his head. "A 20-foot container can hold 29.5 tons, which means one ton costs only yuan. It would cost more than that to take this amount of cargo from southern desert to Qiongzhou by road."

"Why don't you drive a truck anymore?" The tobacco shop owner knew the taxi driver.

The taxi driver smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's because I have too many things to do at home. I only spend a few days in the local area as a truck driver all year round."

"Old Wu, here, keep the ticket. I'm not responsible if you lose it." Old Liu from the lottery shop handed the lottery ticket he had just printed to Old Wu, the owner of the tobacco and liquor store, then turned around and said with a smile, "Your taxi company will go bankrupt sooner or later, so you should find another job as soon as possible!"

"I want to, too! But there are not many jobs here!" The taxi driver took the cigarette from his ear, lit it, and took a deep breath: "Huff..."

"Why don't you try Hailufeng Company?"

The taxi driver still shook his head: "Hailufeng Company? They do recruit truck drivers, but many of them have to travel to other places!"

"Don't be so strict! Look, the airport for this airship is recruiting ground staff." Old Wu from the tobacco and wine shop took out a stack of recruitment advertisements.

"Airport ground staff?" The taxi driver took the recruitment advertisement, looked at it for a while, and felt a little tempted.

Among the ground staff of the airport, there are many people who are tractor drivers. He happened to have work experience. Moreover, the tractor drivers within the airport do not need to travel to other places. They only need to drive inside the airport to pull the shelves to the designated berths and cargo loading and unloading yards.

The middle-aged driver, who felt that driving a taxi would lead to no advancement and even the risk of unemployment, thought about it for a few minutes and made up his mind to go to the local airport to apply for the position of internal tractor driver.

Just now.

Several tractors pulling containers came out of the airport exit one after another.

Then it passed by on the road in front of several people.

"Ah Wei, what's in this container?"

The taxi driver, A Wei, shook his cigarette and said, "Huh... it's fresh beef and mutton. It just came out of the slaughterhouse in Mo Nan yesterday."

Old Wu looked at the black and white containers and said, "If it's as you said, one ton is only over 600 yuan, and one pound is about 30 cents more for freight?"

"How is that possible?" Ah Wei explained with a smile: "There is no way for an airship to fly directly from the factory to the market. From the slaughterhouse to the airport, and from the airport to the market, it still requires road transportation, but the overall transportation cost can be reduced a lot."

"That's good. With so much beef and mutton, the price of meat can be cheaper. My grandson loves braised beef the most. I wonder where to buy this meat?" Old Wu asked curiously.

Ah Wei, who often drives a sports car, knows the surroundings well: "We don't think there is any in Tanmen Town. We need to go to the Hailufeng store in the city or the Hailufeng warehouse supermarket in Tayang Town."

Old Wu crushed the cigarette butt and said, "Tayang? It's closer than the city."

at the same time.

After unloading 177 tons of chilled beef and mutton, airship No. 1002 did not stay for long. After pulling up the eight containers and shelves that had been prepared in advance, it took off again and returned against the wind.

The reason why there are eight containers is mainly because the goods transported on this return voyage are abaca products and tropical fruits.

Tropical fruits need to be packaged and are relatively light goods, unlike abaca products which can be compressed and stacked together.

Airship transportation is not calculated by volume but by weight, so the number of containers must be increased to reach a weight close to the take-off weight.

These are also things that the airship transportation company and the airport need to calculate in advance. The airship's payload must not be wasted, and at the same time, it must not be overweight.

During the half-hour stay at Qiongdong Airport, airship No. 1002 did not have its batteries replaced.

Because during yesterday's flight, it was charged through solar energy, and with the help of a tailwind, its total battery power was still around 82%.

Although flying north is against the wind, the photovoltaic panels will continue to charge during the flight, and the power stored in the batteries will only be used at night.

In other words, theoretically, the remaining power of the airship at this time can support the airship to fly about 3690 kilometers when fully loaded.

The return distance is 3189 kilometers, and half of the time the battery's stored energy does not need to be consumed. Therefore, with such a large amount of power reserve, it is more than enough to return to Zhelimu City from Qiongzhou.

The airship left Tanmen Town in Qiongdong.

He returned to the north with a large amount of abaca products and tropical fruits.

sunset.

The tobacco shop owner drove to the nearby town of Tayang.

I saw the Hailufeng Warehousing Center in Tayang Town on the side of the road, which is also the location of the warehouse supermarket.

Just parked the car.

He saw a lot of people pushing shopping carts out of the supermarket entrance. As he walked, he glanced at these people's shopping carts and found that there were more beef and mutton in the shopping carts.

Many customers spoke Mandarin with a strong accent, and it was obvious that a relatively high proportion of them were from Northeast China.

There are many people from Northeast China who go south to Qiongzhou to spend the winter. Although Zhelimu City is part of the south of the desert, it actually belongs to the Northeast in terms of geographical division and cultural tradition. Therefore, the chilled beef and mutton airlifted from Zhelimu is very popular among these migratory Northeastern people. They can eat the beef and mutton of their hometown in Qiongzhou thousands of miles away, and the price-performance ratio is very high. Many people buy more than ten kilograms at a time, and some families with more family members even buy dozens of kilograms.

Old Wu followed the crowd and came to the meat area.

Just when I was about to look at the price of a package of veal steaks, another customer took away the last package of veal steaks.

Fortunately, he arrived just in time. The supermarket attendant knew from the automatic recognition system of the surveillance camera that one of the shelves was empty, so he quickly transferred a batch of veal steaks from the temporary warehouse.

Old Wu, who was looking at the beef brisket nearby, saw a 10-kilogram package of frozen beef brisket for 500 yuan: "Twenty-five yuan per pound? A % discount for members?"

He looked for a while and found a 5-kilogram bag of chilled beef brisket on the shelf next to him. The price was 249 yuan per bag.

So he picked up a bag and put it in the shopping cart.

A waiter pushed a shopping cart past him and stacked a pile of veal steaks on the empty shelves.

Old Wu walked over.

The waiter introduced the goods while stacking them, smiling: "Uncle, do you want some steak? They were just flown in from Mo Nan. They are very fresh. 10 jin is only 249."

"Are there any small packages?" Old Wu asked with a headache.

"Yes, here." The waiter pointed to another empty shelf and then pulled out a few 2.5 kg packages of veal steaks from the bottom of the shopping cart.

"Thanks, pretty girl." Old Wu took a bag of 2.5 kg veal steaks, which cost 128 yuan.

Remembering that his wife didn't eat beef, he quickly went to the mutton area and picked up a 2.5-kilogram bag of lamb leg meat, which was even cheaper at only 75 yuan.

This price is much cheaper than the local price.

In fact, as domestic feed problems were solved, especially the feed and forage production capacity in the south and northwest of the desert soared, the cost of raising cattle and sheep locally dropped sharply.

Currently, the price of beef from its place of origin is generally between 18 and 20 yuan per catty; the price of mutton is between 11 and 12 yuan per catty.

In the northern areas close to the origins of cattle and sheep, the price generally increases by two or three yuan per catty.

With the help of cheap and fast air transportation by airship, Hailufeng Company lowered the retail price of beef in Qiongzhou to 25 to 26 yuan per catty, and the price of mutton to 15 to 16 yuan per catty.

This price is basically the same as the retail price in the northern region.

And this price will soon sweep the entire southern market.

Because with the advent of airship transportation, the restrictions on the transportation of beef and mutton from the northwest, northeast, and southern desert to the south will be broken.

In fact, the cost of raising cattle and sheep in the southern breeding industry has also dropped a lot, but the local breeders are mainly small-scale breeders, and their breeding technology is not as good as the large-scale breeding in the north, so they will soon face fierce competition.

Generally speaking, the future development trend of the domestic market should be that cattle, sheep and soybeans move south, seafood moves west, and tropical fruits move north.

Old Wu applied for a membership card and added the WeChat public account of the local Hailufeng store, which made the price a little cheaper.

“Freshly dried snow peas.”

Old Wu, who was about to pay the bill, stopped and saw a waiter introducing new products that could be tasted for free. He squeezed over and took a few green peas.

Click click click…

Huh? This is really snow peas. It is slightly salty but has the sweetness of snow peas.

A young man asked curiously: "Pretty girl, how are these snow peas made?"

The waiter introduced with a smile: "Our snow peas are made using the latest room temperature drying technology, which retains all the nutrients and flavors of vegetables and fruits. You can taste the most authentic vegetables and fruits. We are currently having a promotion, and a pack only costs 20 yuan, and there are 200 small packs in it..."

"Give me three packs!"

"I want two packs too."

"Don't push!"

"Ahh...who stepped on my foot with high heels..."

Old Wu was quick-witted and took two bags and pushed the shopping cart to check out.

After paying the bill, I opened a bag of fresh dried snow peas and couldn't wait to tear open a small piece.

Crunch, crunch...the fresh dried snow peas are very crispy when eaten. They don’t have the greasiness of fried or puffed foods, but instead have the sweetness of vegetables.

This thing is a dried product of boiled snow peas, which tastes better than freeze-dried snow peas.

In the afterglow of sunset.

Old Wu drove back to his home.

As the little grandson ran out of the door, he shouted, "Grandpa, I'll help you carry it."

"Okay, okay, Xiaozhi is so good." Old Wu picked up the heavier meat with a smile, and handed the unopened bag of fresh dried snow peas to his grandson.

"Grandpa, what did you buy?"

"These are all your favorites." Old Wu took the meat to the refrigerator.

"Dad, what kind of meat did you buy?" Daughter-in-law Zhou Suqin came over curiously.

Old Wu patted the packaging bag and said, "This is beef brisket, this is steak, and this is lamb shanks. You can stew a pot of beef brisket tonight, and then fry a few steaks."

"I can't finish so much at once, I want to divide it into several portions." Zhou Suqin picked up a pair of scissors and cut open the package. She found that it was filled with small bags, each weighing about one pound. This made it convenient for her.

Xiao Zhi, who was already eating secretly, took a small bag of snow peas and said incoherently, "Grandpa, these snow peas are delicious."

Zhou Suqin saw what her son was holding and said helplessly, "Dad! Don't buy this kind of fried food for him in the future. Children can't eat too much of this kind of junk food."

"Aqin, don't worry, this is not fried food." Old Wu shook his head.

"Really?" Zhou Suqin was skeptical.

More than an hour later, the family gathered around the dining table.

Old Wu's eldest son, Wu Xiuyue, took a bite of the curry beef brisket and said: "This beef is good."

"I went to Tayang Town to buy it in the evening. It's only twenty-five yuan per pound. Old lady, have some lamb leg." Old Wu picked up a piece of braised lamb for his wife Lin Miaoying.

"You eat too." Lin Miaoying picked up the piece of tender lamb and took a bite: "Huh? This lamb doesn't smell bad?"

Zhou Suqin, who often shops online, said, "It should be the mutton from Hailufeng Company, right? Mother-in-law, do you still remember that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, my sister-in-law bought mutton from Hailufeng Company?"

"I bought it from them." Old Wu also thought that the mutton was good. For those who cannot accept the smell of mutton, this kind of mutton is what they want.

Wu Xiuyue put down his chopsticks and said, "Our company has also been busy with Hailufeng Company's affairs recently."

"Xiu Yue, does your company have business dealings with Hailufeng Company?" Old Wu was puzzled.

"It's mainly a matter of road reconstruction, because Qiongdong Airport is in our city, and there is only one township road connecting the airport to the urban area, which will definitely not be enough in the future, so the city is planning a new road with six lanes in both directions."

"Where does the road pass?" Old Wu's eyes flashed with a gleam.

“It is an upgrade and reconstruction based on the original township roads.”

Old Wu quickly asked, "Will our old house be requisitioned?"

"No, it ends at the alley near Third Uncle's house."

"What a pity." Old Wu sighed, "It's just one alley away."

However, Wu Xiuyue smiled and shook his head: "Dad, this is just a preliminary plan. Don't forget that there are some tough guys across the road from the old house. Maybe they will ask for an exorbitant price and cause the route to be modified."

"Yes, there are indeed a few guys over there who are difficult to talk to." Old Wu also felt that there was still hope on his side: "You should pay more attention to it. If the negotiations over there cannot be reached, I suggest that we lean towards our old house."

"Ah."

The children, who were not interested in adult matters, were now concentrating on eating.

(End of this chapter)