Chapter 26 Li people (1)
With the gradual rollout of infrastructure projects, shortcomings in human resources, especially the number of laborers, have begun to become apparent. Except for the young and old members who account for a very small proportion of the time-travelling crowd, almost everyone has become a cheap labor force. Regardless of whether they were big bosses or engaged in scientific research before time-traveling, now they all have to carry bricks on construction sites. And this is only the infrastructure project in the area of Victory Port and Base No. 1. The subsequent development and construction of the inland Tiandu Industrial Zone will require a large amount of labor.
The villagers of the fishing village where the Yu family and his son were located have gradually returned to their homes after receiving safety guarantees, and most of them chose to work on the construction site of Base No. 1. The white rice and refined salt that the Yu family and his son brought home made everyone in the village People's eyes are red. The Yu family's father and son can sell their physical strength for food, but others can't?
Because Yu Dashan joined the dragon earlier and behaved more honestly and obediently, he was directly appointed as the foreman by the executive committee, responsible for commanding dozens of laborers in the fishing village. And Yu Xiaobao, who wears camouflage training uniforms and comes to Victory Port to "work" every day, has been regarded by the time travelers as the first naturalized citizen. Ning Qi, who is in charge of cultural and educational work, has said that in the next place to open the first In a local school, Yu Xiaobao and several other children from fishing villages will be admitted together to run a class for indigenous children, gradually instilling in them various concepts that are hundreds of years ahead of this era.
Yu Dashan felt a little flattered to receive such attention from the short-haired men. You must know that there is no place for children to study within dozens of miles. If you want to learn and read, you have to send your children to dozens of schools. Fenghuang Town is a few miles away, but the high cost is not something a fishing family like them can afford. Now that the short-haired men say they want to open a school and they won’t charge tuition fees, it’s simply good news from heaven. Yu Dashan was grateful, so he approached the people on the executive committee to offer suggestions, saying that there were ways to alleviate the current severe shortage of labor.
Yu Dashan's method is actually not complicated, just go out and recruit workers. The area around Victory Port is sparsely populated because in recent years, a small group of pirates have come here to cause trouble every monsoon period, and many people who cannot bear the disturbance have gradually moved away. But in the coastal plain of more than a hundred miles between Yacheng and here, there are several villages and towns with thousands of residents. Especially in the urban area of Sanya in later generations, because there are two large rivers, the Sanya River and the Linchun River, and several tributaries, which have rich freshwater resources, there are many villages along both sides of the river. As long as they can afford the wages, they can Recruiting some labor in these places is not a problem at all.
Yu Dashan's proposal immediately attracted the attention of the executive committee. After a short discussion, the executive committee entrusted the fishing village to send several village elders to form a recruitment team and set off to recruit workers in a slightly distant place. According to optimistic estimates, two to three hundred laborers can be recruited within half a month, which can alleviate the current labor pressure to a considerable extent. However, in order to employ so many people for a long time, the food problem that was not urgently solved must be put on the agenda immediately. Fortunately, the development of the two agricultural lands on the east bank of Tiandu has gone relatively smoothly, and it is still possible to sow the first batch of crops before Grain Rain. Yuan Qiuye, who is in charge of poultry and livestock breeding, has also inspected the location on the east coast and is preparing to move the poultry and livestock breeding base from the current crude temporary resettlement site.
On the morning of April 9, 1627, the pioneer group that went deep into the Tiandu area to open a temporary camp contacted the No. 1 base headquarters and said that Li people appeared near the camp. However, they were unable to communicate due to language problems. They hoped that the headquarters would send professional personnel as soon as possible. Staff support.
When it comes to dealing with the Li people, Zhou Hengxing is currently the leading expert among the traveling community. Zhou Hengxing himself is a member of the Li ethnic group. His job at the Danzhou City Cultural Center before traveling through time was to collect and study information related to the Li ethnic group in ancient Hainan, and he knew the folk customs of the Li ethnic group best. Now the executive committee is setting up a special working group for Li District, and Zhou Hengxing has become the leader without hesitation.
The Li people originated from ancient Baiyue, and the proper name "Li" began in the late Tang Dynasty. The ancestors of the Li people crossed the sea as early as the Han Dynasty and developed Hainan Island as the first batch of residents. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty pacified South Vietnam, , sent soldiers and civilians to Hainan several times, and established two counties, Zhuya and Dan'er. In subsequent dynasties, the Li people have been included under the rule of the Central Dynasty. The pearls, tortoise shells, spices and other items produced by the Li people have always been "tributes" to Qiongzhou. In the Yuan Dynasty, the central government even directly gave Hainan Li people The head of each cave conferred hereditary official positions of "thousand households" and "ten thousand households". Of course, the consequences of this also intensified the class conflicts within the Li people. From that time on, the relationship between the Li people and the Han people began to become tense.
For the Chuanchuan people, these semi-civilized Li mountain people are undoubtedly very dangerous partners, but if used properly, the manpower of the Li people's village can also be used for their own purposes. Ning Qi, who is familiar with history, pointed out that it was recorded in the "Qiongtai Chronicles" of Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty that during the Yongle period, there were nearly a hundred Li Dongs in the Yazhou area, and the number of Li Dongs in the entire Hainan Island region reached an astonishing more than 1,200. The combined population of so many large and small Li villages is at least 200,000, which is definitely a large amount of human resources worth developing. Therefore, the Executive Committee attaches great importance to the work in Li District. For this working group, almost all the elite soldiers from various departments have been mobilized together, trying to open up a new source of manpower in the inland areas of Hainan.
In addition to Zhou Hengxing, an expert from the Li ethnic group, the special working group included people from mining, agriculture, construction, communications, commerce, military and police, culture, education, medical and other departments. The executive committee appointed the relatively leisurely Ning Qi as the decision-maker. There were more than forty people in the team, including many talented people like the bearded Johnson who had both military, police and medical roles. The materials for the trade had been prepared long before the crossing, mainly salt and a large number of iron farm tools. These were also the things that the Li people living in the inland mountainous areas needed most.
In order to ensure that there is sufficient medical power at the front, Morgan, another doctor from the North American team who specializes in cardiovascular diseases, was also recruited into the team. There is also Qiao Zhiya, who majors in chemical engineering. Like Tom Wang, this guy is an ABC (American-Born Chinese) born in the United States. He is an authentic banana man who can't even speak Chinese fluently. The reason why Qiao Zhiya joined was that the triacid and di-alkali production base of the Ministry of Chemical Industry was also planned to be located near the Tiandu mining area. The main purpose of his trip was to represent the Ministry of Chemical Industry to conduct an on-site inspection of the operability of the planned implementation site of the project.
Johnson, Morgan and Georgia had all served in the U.S. military before crossing over. Georgia in particular had served at the U.S. Army Fort Buchanan Army Base in Puerto Rico and was very familiar with the tropical rainforest environment. The transfer of these three people with military experience to the special working group has also relieved the security pressure of the Military and Police Department to a great extent. This time, half of the six-member North American Gang were included in the special working group. For this reason, the Military Police Department and the Maritime Department had to re-coordinate their manpower and temporarily reduce the original patrol system of two catamaran sailboats to one on duty and one on duty. Waiting for duty. There is nothing we can do about this. After all, the shipping department currently has too few manpower, and there are only a few people who can independently sail a ship to sea. Fortunately, the captured Haicang ship has now been put into normal patrol. With the assistance of ten Ming army sailors, it can barely maintain the scale of two ships taking turns patrolling every day.
In order to save time on the road, the Executive Committee specially lowered several lifeboats on the "New World" to load the personnel of the task force. These four lifeboats are equipped with small-displacement diesel propellers and have certain self-propelled capabilities. In addition, four small wooden boats were mobilized from the fishing village and hung behind the four lifeboats to transport the building materials to be used in the second base. Then everyone filed into the boat, and the fleet sailed upstream along the Tiandu River at a speed of less than five knots, heading slowly towards the camp far inland.
About two or three miles after leaving Victory Port, the river began to gradually narrow, shrinking from a few hundred meters wide at the mouth to just over ten meters. There is flat and wide land on both sides of the river bank, but it is still covered by lush forests. Although the logging team has recruited dozens of local fishermen and works hard to cut down trees to open roads every day, it is still difficult to open up a land passage. It will take some time. With nothing to do on the boat, Ning Qi asked Zhou Hengxing to tell everyone about the situation of the Li people and do some popular science in advance.
Zhou Hengxing smiled and said: "Then what do you want to know?"
"Teach us a few words of Li dialect first." "Yes, it would be a pity if you don't know how to strike up a conversation with a Li girl!" Everyone responded in a flurry of voices.
"The Li dialect is not that easy to learn." Zhou Hengxing explained patiently: "The Li language is divided into five major categories according to different regions: Yi, Qi, Meifu, Run, and Sai. Each major category also has different minor languages. Dialects, such as the Li people in Sanya, speak the Kan dialect, but the Kan dialect is also divided into Luohuo, Hayan, Baoxian, etc., with different pronunciations.”
"It's so complicated, it seems there is little hope for girls from the Li ethnic group!" someone lamented.
"The Li girls in this era are not as ethnic as what you see on TV. In fact, Li women have had the traditional habit of tattooing their faces since ancient times. This is to prevent being robbed by outsiders, and the second is to represent loyalty to feelings. , this custom gradually disappeared after liberation. In addition, Li people like to eat betel nut, so their lips and teeth are dark, which is probably very different from the standard of beauty in your impression." Zhou Hengxing said mercilessly. A basin of cold water.
The members, who originally had some fantasy of having an affair, imagined a girl with black tattoos all over her face and a mouth with two rows of black teeth, and their thoughts suddenly disappeared. Someone immediately questioned Ning Qi: "Before the time travel, the executive committee had been publicizing that it would arrange ethnic customs tours. There are countless ethnic minority girls waiting for us to marry home. Where are the beautiful girls we promised?"
Ning Qi responded righteously: "Don't change the words without authorization. When we promote, we always only mention girls, but never add the word 'beautiful'. Don't worry, it's your freedom to marry or not. The Executive Committee will never arrange an arranged marriage to force you to get married.”
(End of chapter)