Chapter 222: A trip to the reclamation area (second update, please subscribe)
The war continues, but the construction also continues.
With a large number of laborers from home, construction in Borneo was fast. Almost every day, the scenery from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan is changing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The once-destroyed railways were rebuilt, large tracts of rainforest were reclaimed as flat land, and the wood was sent to sawmills, where it was made into lumber, dried and used to build houses and factories.
Unlike workers in other areas who live in wooden houses, in reclamation areas close to the rainforest, workers from the mainland live in wooden houses with steel frames similar to containers, and sleep on pavilions made of wooden planks. , ten people are crowded into an elevated wooden house. These wooden houses can be hoisted to cars at any time and transported by trucks to another reclamation area, so that the workers will not live in thatched houses with harsh conditions and full of snakes and insects.
However, even so, the environment for reclaiming the rainforest is very harsh. Due to the dense forests in Borneo, there are not only mosquitoes in the mountains and swamps, but also a lot of giant pythons, and they are usually as thick as an adult's thigh or even larger. If a person is entangled by a giant python alone in the forest belt, he may even be entangled by a giant python. Possibility of swallowing it alive.
A few giant pythons frightened the reclamation workers who had never seen one before. People were panicked, so they organized people to hunt down the giant pythons, even using light and heavy machine guns and grenades. Finally, the giant python was killed. He was beaten to death and became a meal for the reclamation workers!
Under the guidance of the old overseas Chinese, the reclamation workers were very careful when entering and leaving the camp, and tried to avoid going out alone during the day and night. They usually walked in groups when entering and leaving, often carrying rifles and sulfur powder to prevent pythons. You can only go out together with tools such as bags, machetes for splitting mountain vines, and iron rods in a car or a large tractor.
However, compared to the hardship of the external environment, the life of the reclamation workers is not difficult at all. In addition to salary, each person’s daily food includes two kilograms of rice and 50 cents for vegetables. ,.
“There is meat again…”
"Haha, it's not dragon meat, it's pork!"
The dragon meat in their mouths is the python meat in the jungle. There are a lot of game in the rainforest to eat, especially there are many pythons, which saves some money. expenditure.
When the cooking team brought the food in a truck, Watanabe couldn't help but swallowed his saliva when he saw the food in the rice tube.
White rice, water spinach, and palm-sized slices of meat.
"If you live like this, eating pork and rice every day, the landlords and rich people will have to live in poverty..."
Once again, Long San picked up the palm-sized piece of meat with chopsticks and sighed.
“Before the Japanese came, when we were doing the work for the Xu family, the Xu family put two pieces of meat the size of fingers in each person’s bowl, which was a good employer hundreds of miles away. Now, if you put this...this piece of meat, it's enough for five or six people. This meal is enough to fill your stomach..."
"No, it's oil and water every day, and it's either fish or meat. , what if we go home in the future and live without fish and meat?”
“How are you going to live?”
The person next to you laughed.
"Then don't go back. In a place as big as Borneo, just clearing the forest is enough for us to work for a lifetime. We can work for 10 yuan a month for a lifetime, and then buy a piece of land. It won't be enough to live there..."
While talking, the man took two mouthfuls of rice and said.
"Go back, what are you going to do? The war is in chaos, and if you don't save everything, you will starve to death... It's so good to leave this alone, you can eat all the fruits on the trees..."
He His words attracted a burst of agreement from everyone. However, although the food was good, the work they did was not easy. Soon, the one-hour lunch break was over, and the reclamation workers were busy again.
In addition to being humid in the rainforest, the thatch in the forest is much taller than people. The ridges and edges on the back of the thatch leaves are sharper than knives. If you are not careful, your skin will break open if you touch it. Blood flow.
Due to the limited number of machines for reclamation, settlers often used long-handled scythes to chop down thatch and bushes, and then burned them with fire. While they were working, swarms of hornets were buzzing; leeches were everywhere, and if they were not careful, the exposed parts of their faces, necks, and limbs would be sticky, and their skin would become itchy. , the dry leech has sucked up enough blood and swelled to the size of a chopstick. It still bleeds after being peeled open with hands!
As for those towering trees, they can only be wrapped with large steel cables and let tractors pull them down. The big tree tractor that can be hugged by one person with both arms is not actually a tractor, but an old French tank such as the R35 that the search team collected on the French battlefield. Although as tanks, they have long been outdated, and the tractor is definitely Enough.
However, even if the tank encounters a towering tree, it is not easy to deal with it. If it is a very large tree that can be surrounded by two or more people with both arms, two or three tanks will have to work together to pull it. The tree was so big that even a few people could not wrap their arms around it. We had to first send a dozen saws to cut the roots, call in three or four tractors converted from Shire tank chassis, and then wrap them with large steel cables, each with several hundred horsepower. The giant tractor with powerful horsepower made an earth-shattering roar. Several tractors pulled together in the same direction for a while, and the roots of the big trees rattled. The loud noise of the motors made people deafen. With a loud "boom", the big tree was finally pulled down. Several tractors rushed forward due to inertia. The tractor driver quickly braked and then stumbled to a stop. This scene was very spectacular and of course very shocking. . While the reclamation workers cheered for the fall of the big tree, Li Yian, who was standing on the jeep, was also stunned by the scene in front of him.
Because the reclamation of the reclamation area is related to the industrial and agricultural construction of Borneo , so he took time to inspect the reclamation area. While supervising the progress of reclamation, he also went to the front line to understand the reclamation situation and the lives of reclamation workers.
Unexpectedly, I saw this extremely spectacular scene as soon as I entered the reclamation area.
This was the first time he saw a giant tree with a diameter of five or six meters in the sky. It was dragged down just like that. When the tractor converted from a tank rushed out suddenly, Tian Yongzhe introduced it. .
"Chief Li, to tow such a big tree, the bigger the horsepower of the tractor, the better. We don't have many high-horsepower tractors, and each mission area can only use them in coordination, but there are many big trees in the rainforest. Sometimes, We all use five or six small tractors together, plus manpower.”
These tractors are actually French-made tanks captured in France, and most of them have had their turrets removed by the Germans. , converted into a trailer, and now it comes in handy in the reclamation area of Borneo.
“I’ll figure it out later.”
Over in Europe, the British tanks should be starting to be scrapped, right? Otherwise, why not buy some tanks and use them as tractors?
European tanks are currently cheaper than tractors. Of course, there are also a large number of military tractors used by the militaries of various countries. You can buy a batch later by purchasing remaining supplies.
Thinking of the generosity of the United States in disposing of surplus supplies after the war, Li Yian couldn't help but look forward to it. After all, at that time, everything was sold at a discount, even big fractures.
It doesn’t matter even if you don’t have money. The United States can directly provide loans. In short, that time will be the real feast!
Even now, Li Yian has made a list and is waiting for the Americans to break their bones and sell them.
Unfortunately, we have to wait a little longer.
While thinking this, Li Yian saw the workers cutting with hand saws, and the thigh-thick trees were cut down by the sawing action of the hand saw. Seeing this, he He asked almost subconsciously.
“Why are they all using hand saws? Don’t you have a chain saw?”
Although I’m not very familiar with chain saws, who hasn’t seen Chainsaw Massacre? That guy used one Isn't that what it is?
Using that thing to saw the tree must be faster than using a manual saw.
"Chainsaw?"
Tian Yongzhe said in surprise.
"Chainsaw? What chain saw?"
Tian Yongzhe's reaction made Li Yian stunned for a moment, and then asked in confusion.
"The chain saw should have been invented. Otherwise, if you coordinate with those German engineers, the chain saw must have been invented. It only takes tens of seconds to cut a big tree. If you use it, Work efficiency can be increased more than ten times..."
With a chain saw, the speed of forest reclamation can be increased by at least ten times, or even more. For Borneo right now, time is very tight. After all, Europe has already begun reconstruction. By the time Europe completes reconstruction, , Borneo's palm oil and other agricultural products can take advantage of the opportunity to enter the European market, dominate the consumer field, and let them experience modern food science and hard work.
"If you have a chain saw, try to purchase some. After all, this is related to the reclamation plan of Borneo."
(End of this chapter)
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