Chapter 25 Labor Camp (3)
The prisoners on the shore worked very hard, but unfortunately the progress was not very fast. After all, these people were professional soldiers rather than professional carpenters, and their axes and saws were not as handy as the knives and guns they were used to. By noon, the team led by Luo Shengdong had finished preparing the wood needed to build the trestle. After half a day of high-intensity labor, the captives, who had only had a bowl of white rice porridge in the morning, began to feel empty in their bellies, but now there would be no food for them. The only thing they could eat was a large bucket of water on the shore. brine.
The other team responsible for entering the inland land reclamation made slightly better progress. There were no large forests in this flat area, which saved a lot of trouble. Therefore, their task was to remove all the shrubs and weeds in the area designated by Gao Huan. They are cut off and then piled together and burned into ashes. At the same time, furrows must be dug out at the edges of the designated plots to prepare for the next step of diversion of water for irrigation. By the end of the morning, they had already dealt with an area about the size of two football fields, which amounted to about twenty acres of land. At this rate, there was hope that they could complete the fifty acres of land reclamation stipulated by Gao Huan before the sun went down.
In addition, the land reclamation team also made some gains during this process - they caught three pythons, and they were quite heavy. It took three people to lift the largest one. Of course, these results were eventually handed over to the short-haired leaders of the labor camp, and they would eventually become the extra food for the time-travelers tonight.
One thing the captives didn't know was that the fifty-acre area designated by Gao Huan for them was slightly larger than the area of this era. It is recorded in "History of Ming Dynasty: Shihuo Zhi" that "the upper land of all fields is the near Guo, and the middle land and the lower land of the distant land. Five feet are steps, two hundred and forty steps are acres, and one hundred acres are hectares." According to the Ming Dynasty Calculated by weights and measures, the area of one acre is about 10% smaller than that of later generations. This is not because Gao Huan intends to punish them, but the weights and measures used by the Time Travelers must be based on future generations. If the current measurement standards are to be used in this regard, it will only cause great confusion to the work of the Time Travelers themselves.
The prisoners had no lunch, but the overseers couldn't go hungry. At noon, a small wooden boat came across from the other side of the river, and the person delivering food was actually a local fisherman who came to do odd jobs. Today's cooking class's work is the Spanish paella, which has been well received before. The use of various spices fills the air with an attractive smell. The only people on the east bank of the Tiandu River who can't smell this scent are probably those who are still burning plant ashes. The hard work forced the land reclamation team.
A group of people carrying wood on the shore smelled the aroma of the food on the boat and unconsciously slowed down their movements. Some people were already slurping their throats and swallowing saliva. Upon seeing this, Gu Wei stood up and yelled at the top of his voice: "Hurry up and do the work. Only after you finish it will you have a chance to have another meal tomorrow!"
The captives who heard this suddenly understood why the Shorthairs had stipulated that points could be exchanged for three meals a day. If you only eat two meals a day for such a heavy workload, I'm afraid you won't be able to hold on for three to five days before your body collapses. By then, your physical strength will be exhausted, you won't be able to complete the task and you won't get points, and there will be no hope of regaining your freedom. It seems like It is also necessary to exchange half of the points for enough food.
Only a handful of smart people among the prisoners figured out that this was Shorthair's "trickster plan" and planned to use some means to make them spend their hard-earned points. Luo Shengdong spontaneously connected the theory with practice: "Ever since General Zhang's brother-in-law opened a gambling stall in Yazhou City, General Zhang would often drag the officers in the village to go there every time after paying. Betting makes everyone’s military pay go in with the left hand and go out with the right hand. Isn’t this just like short-haired points, playing tricks to deceive people?”
But despite his worries, Luo Shengdong also knew that he was powerless to change anything. Everyone knew that points were the only way to survive. Even he, Luo Shengdong, hoped to save enough points to regain his freedom one day. Hope?
The hungry prisoners continued to work hard in the afternoon. Occasionally, some people wanted to be lazy or take a longer rest. Without the guards having to say anything, Luo Shengdong and the team leaders would naturally urge them. Some will even use fists and kicks. When the piles for the trestle began to be driven in the water, the sun had already begun to set. Luo Shengdong was so anxious that he jumped into the water to straighten the wooden piles. Even so, the progress of the project is still slower than planned. If this continues, the task will definitely not be completed.
Just when Luo Shengdong was about to feel desperate, a group of people from the land reclamation team completed their mission ahead of schedule and returned to the shore. Luo Shengdong was grasping at straws now, and he didn't care about the disgraced appearance of each of these people. He rushed them to the trestle construction site without even washing their faces. After combining the two into one, I hurriedly hurriedly and slowly completed the construction of the trestle before the sun went down.
When Cai Hongzhan was pacing back and forth on the trestle to accept the project, Luo Shengdong felt that his breathing was a little unsmooth. He remembered that the Hainan Guard commander had inspected his subordinates when he came to Yazhou for inspection a year ago. At that time, he felt like Not as nervous as now.
Finally, Cai Hongzhan nodded towards Gu Wei, signaling that the trestle project had passed the acceptance test. Gu Wei didn't mean to take all the credit. He patted Ren Liang next to him on the shoulder and said: "I've finished supervising the work, and I'll leave the rest to you."
Ren Liang smiled slightly, stood on the bow of the ship, cleared his throat, and said loudly: "Everyone, listen up! Now the team leader will count the tools of the group, and after handing them over, stand in line according to the group!"
In view of the large amount of iron tools used in labor, for safety reasons, the prisoners must not be allowed to keep them overnight. Therefore, they must be counted and handed over after the work is completed every day, and then distributed before starting work the next day. Although it is a little troublesome, the safety first rule pursued by the Executive Committee will not change because of this.
After finally waiting for these things to be completed and all the prisoners lined up neatly on the shore, Ren Liang began to announce the results of today's labor: "Today both teams completed their scheduled labor tasks, so everyone can get the basic two wages." Points." There was an exhalation from the crowd, and it seemed that everyone's hearts were still hanging in the air. It was not until Ren Liang announced the result that he let out a sigh of relief.
"In addition, the land reclamation team helped build the trestle after completing their own tasks, so everyone in the land reclamation team can get an extra bonus point." Ren Liang added the good news calmly.
As soon as the news was announced, there were expressions of excitement that could not be concealed on the faces of some people on the shore. It's just that due to the rules, no one dared to make a direct sound. And this directly led to the fact that when Ren Liang registered whether he wanted to redeem his points for three meals, almost a dozen people from the land reclamation team raised their hands without exception - now that he had three points in hand, he could exchange one point for it. If I can eat well tomorrow, my work will probably be easier than today.
The remaining people who only scored two points, after hesitating for a while, began to raise their hands in twos and threes. These people have limited knowledge and may not understand the meaning of Shorthair's arrangement, but if they can't eat enough tomorrow, they may not even be able to keep the two basic points. Luo Shengdong looked around, sighed and then raised his hand feebly.
After returning to the cell on the barge, Luo Shengdong found that the ten sailors had also returned, so he asked them how they were doing today.
Helmsman Liu Shun is the leader of this ship. Hearing this, he shook his head and said: "I have been running the ship in the water village for almost ten years and I have never been so tired. Mr. Luo, look at these brothers. They are all so tired." Like a dog!”
After Luo Shengdong inquired carefully, he found out that this group of sailors had been assigned to operate the Haicang ship to patrol the sea in the morning. Of course, there were many short-haired men with guns and live ammunition on the ship. During the sailing process, Shorthair required these sailors to constantly change the course, raise and lower the sails, and repeat many times. They even had to do many damage control measures such as how to plug leaks and put out fires on the ship. It seemed that they had to do it many times. It seems that he wants to learn how to operate a Haicang ship. In the afternoon, the group of sailors were pulled to a newly leveled area on the shore and began to build work sheds. It is said that Shorthair planned to build a shipyard to manufacture wooden boats by itself. Of course, these sailors also received two corresponding points after a day of hard work. Like Luo Shengdong's team, the sailors also chose to exchange points for meals in order to ensure they had enough physical strength to complete tomorrow's hard work.
After hearing this, Luo Shengdong sighed and said: "It seems that it will be difficult for us to get ahead."
Liu Shun was shocked and said: "Why did Mr. Luo say this?"
"Today, the short-haired thieves drove us to open up wasteland in the east of Hedong. I think the land they have designated is probably as large as a thousand acres. The short-haired thieves are also clearing up wasteland for farming and repairing factories and ships. They are determined to settle here. ." Luo Shengdong reluctantly expressed his analysis of the situation.
What Luo Shengdong couldn't imagine was that the shorthairs didn't just plan to settle here, but wanted to transform this place into the starting point for future global hegemony. However, the future overlords are not yet able to enjoy the rich food and clothing at this time, and there are still a lot of work waiting for them to do one by one. For example, although it was already dark at this time, lights were set up outside Base No. 1. A group of young people were working overtime to build the peripheral defenses of Base No. 1 in accordance with the requirements of the Military and Police Department and the Ministry of Construction.
Because the current conditions in all aspects are very limited, the defensive wall of the fortification can only be based on civil structures for the time being. Two layers of arm-thick wood are used as the wall, and the middle is filled with about one foot of sand. This can effectively prevent opponents. ranged attack weapon. The side facing the coast adopts a bastion design. In addition to the prominent angular defense part, it will also adopt a high and low multi-stage three-dimensional defense system to ensure that the advantage of concentrated fire is fully exerted within the range of the Type 56 semi-automatic. Coupled with the nearly completed trenches on the outside, a miniature moat can be formed outside Base No. 1 after water from the Tiandu River is introduced.
According to the estimates of the Military and Police Department, after the defense fortifications are completed, the traversing troops can easily withstand at least three to four thousand Japanese air force offensives in Base No. 1 with early warning. However, if they have to face military forces equipped with artillery, In terms of strength, the current protective wall is still a bit inadequate, and we can only wait for further reconstruction and reinforcement when conditions permit in the future. Of course, in accordance with the Executive Committee's guidelines of "defending the enemy outside the territory", the future military development idea must be to establish a powerful maritime gunboat fleet to protect the safety of Victory Port. With the establishment of the artillery unit, the corresponding coastal defense batteries will also be established. It will appear at a key location at the port's outlet, and the security of Base No. 1 will be greatly increased by then.
(End of chapter)