Chapter 13 A Long Day (3)
There seemed to be a lot of people in the logging team, but in fact there were only four groups of about ten people responsible for logging. This is partly because not everyone can do the technical work of logging. For those with zero experience without special training, it is simply a risk. Whether it is a chain saw or a large ax, neither a novice can handle it. thing. The other half of the reason is that the felled trees are not just finished when they fall to the ground. They also have to rely on manpower to drag the trees aside, cut off the branches and leaves, and then pile them together in categories for subsequent use. In the cleared space, we have to find ways to shovel the tree stumps on the ground, which is also very labor-intensive. It is no exaggeration to say that the workload required for supporting logging is actually much greater than the logging itself.
Regarding the cut trees, after seeing the actual situation, Bai Kesi originally planned to sort and stack them according to tree species, but Cai Hongzhan felt that this was too troublesome, so he simply classified them according to usable wood and non-usable wood, such as those that could not be used as timber. The mangroves are directly classified as unusable wood and are left to be dried and used as firewood or to build kilns to burn charcoal in the future.
The men of the Ministry of Agriculture were independent of all departments in the landing operation, because their first job was to build a centralized poultry and livestock shack on the land. You must know that it has been a full 72 hours since these poultry and livestock were loaded on the ship in England on the 29th. Even if these poultry and livestock can endure it, the members of the Ministry of Agriculture who are responsible for taking care of these guys on the ship can no longer stand it. That smell is so soul-stirring. There are a total of six horses, six sheep, eight cows, ten pigs, and dozens of chickens, ducks and geese on the Ministry of Agriculture's supply list. In addition, there are six Labradors specially purchased by the Military and Police Department. , before enough ground can be leveled to start growing food, the Ministry of Agriculture must first be responsible for taking care of these livestock that also have the status of time travellers.
Before lunch, two-thirds of the construction of the floating dock had been completed. Tao Donglai, who was in charge of the project, estimated that it would be completed in another hour at most and the ship could be stopped and unloaded. The progress of the logging team is worrying. The teams responsible for felling the trees are progressing smoothly, but the manpower responsible for subsequent processing of these trees cannot keep up. It happened that the two Bobcat multi-purpose vehicles responsible for leveling the cargo yard were empty, and the headquarters quickly transferred them to the lumberyard to help haul wood, which greatly improved work efficiency.
Lunch was prepared by the logistics department's cooking team in the kitchen on the "New World" and then sent ashore by boat. The main course was beef and potatoes cooked in two large iron buckets. The cooking team had been busy before this, delivering boiling water four times in the morning. Seeing that dinner was about to begin, people who had been tired all morning and did not need orders from the headquarters slowly stopped what they were doing and began to line up in front of the cook.
The executive committee and a group of people from the landing operation headquarters did not even have time to spare during meal time. They gathered in a circle to communicate about the situation while eating, and at the same time made adjustments to the afternoon's work arrangements.
The pier team reported that the temporary toilets built on the beach were too small and insufficient, so that there were queues and congestion several times in the morning. Tao Donglai said that the Ministry of Construction would immediately dispatch construction machinery to build another temporary toilet after lunch.
Bai Kesi mentioned that the progress of the logging team was obviously not fast enough, because after the logging work, the ground had to be leveled and then the prefab houses built. According to the current progress, let alone building a prefabricated house before the sun sets today, even the work of leveling the ground may not be completed. After discussion, the agricultural team agreed to lend a few cows to the logging team for hauling wood, but it must be supervised by someone from the agricultural team. You must know that these cows are carefully selected by Yuan Qiuye. Even if one of them has an accident, it will be dangerous. For agricultural groups, these are major liability accidents.
Ning Qi mentioned the issue of drinking water. The drinking water carried on the ship is limited. At least until the base's water supply system is set up, don't expect to be able to use the reserved fresh water for bathing or anything else. The Executive Committee did purchase two small freshwater purification and treatment systems, but before completing the main body of Base No. 1, it was obviously impossible to build a separate water treatment unit in the wild. Of course, this problem is ultimately the same thing as what Bai Kesi said, which is to speed up the base construction. Only by completing the basic construction of the base as soon as possible can the subsequent supporting construction work keep up.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the preliminary construction of the floating dock was finally completed successfully without any work-related injuries. All the construction workers stood in front of the dock to complete the group photo. This photo was also considered by later researchers to be the pioneers completing "No. 1" here. Project” historical witness. The Executive Committee duly took over the commanding role and announced that the bay, later known as Yulin Port, would be named "Victory Port". Of course, things like erecting monuments will at least have to wait until the area is expanded into a permanent dock in the future. We can't take care of the superficial things right now.
Half of the original wharf team immediately joined the logging team to assist in the ground leveling work, while the remaining people began to reinforce the floating wharf and drive piling work. As soon as the dock was built, unloading began. The first thing to be unloaded from the ship were various building materials. The goal of the command center was to complete the foundation leveling work within today and to arrange for most people to spend the night on land.
At this time, the logging team has cleared more than half of the football field near the shore. Due to the processing of tree stumps, the ground is full of potholes. Before the foundation construction of the station can be carried out, the ground must at least be leveled first. Fortunately, the several construction machines that landed earlier have now been vacated, and they are working together to fill the holes, and the efficiency is not low.
In order to shorten the project time, the planned prefabricated house foundation construction also had to be reduced to a certain extent. After leveling the ground, the entire foundation area was not solidified. Instead, grooves were dug according to the planned prefab house dimensions and quick-drying cement was used. The ring beams were poured. By this time tomorrow, the floor can be laid on the ring beams and the frame can be built.
While Tao Donglai led a few people to complete the final pouring work in person, others had already begun to build a large field tent in the open space next to it and assemble a multi-layered iron frame bed. Under the coordination of the headquarters, the logging team also turned around and helped the agricultural team build a simple livestock shed by the Tiandu River, finally allowing the livestock and poultry that had been floating at sea for three days to return to land. superior.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Yan Chujie and his reconnaissance team finally came back, and they actually brought back two local fishermen. It's just that Yan Chujie and the few people he brought didn't understand the Hainan dialect, and they couldn't understand what they were talking about after asking questions for a long time, so they had to bring them back first and then talk about it. Of course, Yan Chujie's American-style equipment did not escape everyone's attention. Meng He expressed strong contempt for his behavior of "worshiping foreigners and favoring foreigners". Even Gu Kai, a fake foreign devil, muttered, "A countryman is not a countryman, but his fighting ability five". Yan Chujie was not willing to spit out the meat he had eaten because of a few verbal attacks, so he quickly changed the subject. According to Yan Chujie, they discovered a small fishermen's village about four or five miles away from the landing site, at the western end of Victory Port. Although the houses were already empty when they went there, they could see that the residents there had just left, and they must have gone into the mountains to hide after seeing the fleet. As for the old and young who were caught, they probably came back from outside the village without getting any news, and they happened to be caught by Yan Chujie and the others who were squatting in the village.
Tao Dong took a look at these two aborigines from this time and space. They were both dressed in rags, dark, thin, and short in stature. If it weren't for the Ming people's buns tied with cloth strips on their heads, their appearance would be different from the other people. The Vietnamese monkeys are quite similar in time and space. The eyes of both of them were full of fear, and their hands and feet were timid and they didn't know where to move.
Ning Qi sighed and said: "Historical records say that Yuling Port was plundered by Southeast Asian pirates many times in the Ming Dynasty. There were still troops stationed here during the Wanli Period. However, it is already the seventh year of the Apocalypse. At this time You all know the Ming Dynasty army... They must think that we are also pirates here to rob, and they are probably thinking about how to save their lives."
Tao Donglai thought for a while and then ordered: "Let's let them eat something first to show our goodwill. By the way, aren't there several Hainan natives in our team? Find out where they are. Call someone nearby to act as a translator.”
The two fishermen were a little overwhelmed when they saw the white rice and braised beef with potatoes. A group of people pointed at them for a long time before they understood that this was food for them. What everyone didn't expect was that the two fishermen actually knelt down and kowtowed respectfully, then picked up their lunch boxes and started eating.
A translator was quickly found. This young man named Zhou Hengxing is from Danzhou, Hainan and belongs to the Li ethnic group. He worked at the Danzhou City Cultural Center before participating in the crossing. He is familiar with various dialects and ethnic languages in Hainan. He is currently a translator. It is assigned to the Ministry of Information Industry in Menghe to do data collection work. Although the two fishermen spoke in ancient dialects, fortunately, Zhou Hengxing, a Hainan native, finally got the code after repeated inquiries in multiple dialects. After careful interrogation, some useful information was obtained from these two fishermen.
The two fishermen, an old one and a young one, were a father and son. As Yan Chujie had guessed, they were caught by the reconnaissance team as soon as they returned to the village after being out for a few days. According to the father and son named Yu, there are more than 20 households in this small fishing village on the west side of the harbor, with a population of 60 or 70 people. They usually make a living by fishing, and they have reclaimed 50 to 60 acres of land next to the fishing village to grow some rice. Of course, rice fields that lack scientific planting technology will not produce any considerable harvests. They are basically "looking at the sky". How much they can harvest depends on God's mood. In addition, this village has been robbed by pirates two or three times in recent years, so Yu and his son also said that the villagers must have fled into the mountains when the situation was bad, and it might take ten days and a half to come back.
As for the Ming Dynasty garrison that everyone is most concerned about, according to Yu and his son, there is a beacon tower where guards are stationed on a high slope no more than three miles west of the village. During the Wanli period, soldiers of a general banner were stationed here, but now there is only a small banner establishment and it is not full. Seeing such a large fleet entering the harbor, it is estimated that the few guardsmen had already greased their feet and fled for their lives.
When Tao Donglai heard this, he turned his head and asked Ning Qi softly: "What are the general flags and small flags?"
"A small flag has ten soldiers, a general flag has five small flags, and two general flags are the establishment of a hundred households." Ning Qi knew that Tao Donglai was not familiar with these historical materials, so he patiently explained it to him .
Tao Donglai nodded: "So there aren't many soldiers? It's a hundred miles from here to Yacheng. It will take seven or eight days at the earliest for them to bring reinforcements back, right?"
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Ning Qi shook his head and said: "That's not necessarily the case. If they have a boat on the other side of the Luhuitou Peninsula, the time it takes to get back to Yazhou can be shortened by at least half. In addition, I must remind you that Yazhou has already established a water transport system during the Wanli Period. During the Jiajing period, a special officer position was added to the Zhaiqian Division, which was responsible for commanding the naval forces of Yacheng Water Village. Even if the army in the late Ming Dynasty was corrupted, Yazhou Water Village did not have all the troops at present, but there were more than a dozen ships and hundreds of ships. There should still be some sailors. If Yacheng gets the news and sends troops, they will probably go by sea."
Tao Donglai laughed: "Well, I'm afraid they won't come. We are short of labor here!"
(End of chapter)