Chapter 27 Li People (2)
When many people signed up to join the special working group, they had a little bit of lust in their hearts, but now their dreams have been completely extinguished by Zhou Hengxing's words. Knowing that this was a trick by the executive committee, at least in the short term, ideas such as developing the maid project in Lidong did not seem to be feasible, but after everyone lamented, they could only face the cruel reality. For safety reasons, the executive committee did not arrange female members in Tian Du's temporary camp or in the special working group dispatched this time, so everyone can only live as monks for a while in the future.
About two hours later, a small fork appeared on the river ahead. The boat leading the team sent a signal backwards, indicating that the temporary camp of Base 2 was on the river bank not far ahead. After continuing for about two minutes, the river in front became slightly wider. You can see that the river water from the upstream is divided into two water channels here. It turns out that from here to the bifurcation point of the river just seen, The river is divided into left and right branches and surrounds a large area of land in the middle of the river.
This is the site of the first hydropower station on the upper reaches of the Tiandu River planned by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Construction. Taking advantage of the natural river channel that is divided into two, the builders only need to guide the river water into one side, and then it can be easily used on the other side. Dam construction has been carried out on the drained river, and the topography of the natural twin rivers can also greatly reduce the drainage pressure of the hydropower station during the rainy season.
There are several reinforced concrete pipe parts with a diameter of two feet stacked on the small trestle pier. These are pressure water pipes used in building hydropower stations. According to the plan of the Ministry of Energy, they had been built long before the time travel. After all, the production of this time and space Capacity is limited, and special parts like this cannot be manufactured in a short time. It took several days to transport these heavy guys one by one from the downstream in small boats.
When the fleet arrived at the pier at the dock, they happened to see a group of people sitting on the ground and hammering on the rocks. Their gray-headed and disgraced looks were just like the migrant workers in the quarries of later generations. But seeing this scene None of the newcomers could laugh, for most of them would have to knock rocks here for the rest of the day. This is one of the gravel mortar concrete materials that must be used for the base of the No. 1 Hydropower Station. In the days when there was a serious shortage of labor, everyone had to obey the work arrangements of the executive committee-including knocking stones.
The temporary camp currently only has a sparse wooden fence on the river bank, which is about one person high. There is an isolation zone with bellows wire mesh around the outside, and then there are several marching tents and a large shed for stacking supplies. There are now more than thirty people stationed here, and the temporary person in charge is Liu Shanxia, the second-in-command of the Ministry of Construction. For this hydropower project in the upper reaches of the Tiandu River, he visited many small hydropower stations in Yunnan and Guangxi in the six months before crossing. Although I haven’t actually done it yet, but I think I have enough theoretical knowledge about building a small hydropower station. The camp was set up the day before, and he was transferred over the next day. Several projects that had just been started had to be handed over to other people in the Ministry of Construction, which shows the importance the executive committee attaches to the hydropower station project.
Liu Shanxia walked onto the trestle and held Ning Qi's hand: "Finally, I've been waiting for you!"
Ning Qi asked in surprise: "Did you have a conflict with the Li people?"
"Not yet, but there are more and more Li people nearby. We don't understand the language and we don't know what they want to do. Now our people don't dare to leave the camp." Liu Shanxia took the time to introduce the current situation to Ning Qi: " These Li people have hook knives on their waists. If you want to negotiate with them, be careful!”
Ning Qi nodded and said: "Don't worry, we have professionals here to take part in the negotiation. By the way, Lao Xiang from the Ministry of Energy is here. You are old friends, so I won't say anything more. Regarding the hydropower station project, you guys Let’s take a closer look and see if there are any omissions in the construction plan. When the last batch of materials and construction personnel arrive in the next two days, you can start work as soon as possible.”
Xiang Chinan is from Yunnan, and he should be the last group of members to join the time travel. Xiang Chinan previously served in the Hydropower Corps of the Armed Police and worked in the local Electric Power Bureau after resigning. He was a friend of Liu Shanxia when he inspected the construction of small hydropower stations before crossing over. He also helped the preparatory committee design a hydropower station construction plan with many ideas. Later, After a while, the two became familiar with each other, so Liu Shanxia simply roped him in. On the first day when the Preparatory Committee withdrew from Guangzhou, he reported to Guangzhou accompanied by Liu Shanxia.
Of course, dual-purpose military and civilian talents like Xiang Chinan inevitably became hot spots that the Military Police Department and the Ministry of Energy competed for. Later, the Executive Committee followed Wu Zhuo's old practice and gave Xiang Chinnan a dual establishment— -In peacetime, it belongs to the Ministry of Energy, and in time of war, it belongs to the Military and Police Department. This time the hydropower station project was handed over to the pair of Xiang Chinan and Liu Shanxia by the executive committee.
Half an hour later, Zhou Hengxing and Ning Qi walked out of the camp under the escort of several heavily armed members of the military and police department. Standing at the entrance of the camp, you can see a lot of people moving around in the forest about a hundred meters away. Although Zhou Hengxing remained calm on the surface, his heartbeat was uncontrollably speeding up. Although his household registration book is marked as Li nationality, he was actually born and raised in the city. He is an out-and-out city dweller. He has to rely on some purely theoretical knowledge to communicate with these Li ancestors who live in the mountains and forests. I really don’t have much confidence in dealing with him.
Zhou Hengxing took a few deep breaths to calm down, then raised the tin trumpet in his hand and began to loudly preach in several ancient Li languages he knew. The general idea was to explain that his group came here and I have no ill intentions and hope to coexist peacefully with the residents of Li Dong. I am also happy to trade with the Li people for the salt, pig iron, etc. they need. After a while, several Li people came out of the forest opposite, and they didn't stop until they were about ten meters away from the camp gate. The leader was a middle-aged man, who pointed at Zhou Hengxing and chirped for a while. Zhou Hengxing estimated that he understood about 70% of what he meant, and then he gradually calmed down. He turned to Ning Qi and said, "He hopes to see what we are going to trade."
"Okay." Ning Qi nodded and motioned for someone to show the sample to him first.
The samples actually only contained a few things, a small clay pot of table salt, and a few iron farm tools such as shovels and sickles. The middle-aged man came up and knelt down, picked up the farm tools and looked at them carefully. Then he opened the clay pot, dipped his fingers in some salt and put it in his mouth. This action reminded all the time-travelers here of Hong Kong movies. Scene of drug dealer inspecting goods.
After the middle-aged man stood up, there was another burst of chatter. Zhou Hengxing translated and said that the man expressed that he was very satisfied with these things, but they did not have any materials for trading with them at the moment. He asked if he could return to the village with them for trading. In addition, Just asking if we can provide more such trading products.
"Of course, tell them that we have sufficient supplies and we are happy to visit their home." Ning Qi responded calmly. The Executive Committee dispatched such a large-scale special working group not only to trade a few kilograms of salt and sickles with the Li people, but also to go deep into Li Dong to understand the people's conditions, and then maintain the relationship with the Li people and develop Li Dong in a targeted manner. Human resources, this is the main task to be completed by the special working group. Of course, during this process, people from other departments will also complete inspection subjects such as topography, flora and fauna, agricultural status, and mineral development in the areas controlled by the Li people.
After completing the preliminary negotiations, the Li people who got the news came out of the woods one after another. There were about thirty people, old and young. Most of these people were wearing cloth shirts made of Jibei cloth. Everyone had a hook knife that Liu Shanxia had mentioned on their waists, but their faces were calm and they had no intention of making trouble. Ning Qi looked at these ragged Li people, and suddenly a thought flashed through his mind. It turned out that he was not only afraid of himself, in fact, these Li people were also worried about threats from the outside.
An hour later, the special working group that had prepared supplies set off from the camp along with the Li people who led the way. Except for a few people who want to stay in the camp to assist in the construction of the hydropower station, there are still as many as 35 people setting off on the road again, half of whom are members of the military and police department equipped with weapons, and even Johnson and others are included. Morgan and two blond foreigners were included. In addition to the necessary three-day rations and a small amount of drinking water, they also carried tents, military radios, various medicines, lighting equipment, ropes, etc., and even a miniature hand-cranked generator in case of accidents .
The materials to be brought to Li Dong for trading this time include two hundred kilograms of salt, one hundred iron farm tools, various seasonings, and some small items as gifts for the leader of Li Dong. Of course, these materials do not need to be carried by the travelers themselves. The Li people consciously shouldered this task. Perhaps in their view, these things already belong to them, and they should naturally be responsible for transporting them home.
After walking north along the path in the mountains and forests for about an hour, the members could already see areas with traces of farming on the hillside. Zhou Hengxing, an expert on the Li ethnic group, introduced to the members: "This is the traditional farming method of the Li ethnic group, cutting mountain fences. Before liberation, the Li ethnic group had always grown food in this way, which is similar to slash-and-burn farming."
The method of planting mountain fences is to go up the mountain in the first month of each year and cut down the trees in the selected area. After three or four months, when the branches on the ground dry up, they are set on fire, and then the grain seeds are sown when the rainy season comes. There is no farming process involved in cutting down mountain fences. When sowing seeds, one person holds a sharp wooden stick and pokes holes in the front, while the other person places grain seeds in the back and then levels the soil. Weeds can only be cleared a few times in between, and then we wait for the mature harvest in the second half of the year. Those who are more thoughtful will shovel the soil after burning the mountain before sowing to remove the grass roots in the soil layer. At the same time, they will also hoe the topsoil finely to facilitate the germination of the grain seeds. But in any case, this farming method is extremely primitive, and the yield is therefore extremely limited. Moreover, this kind of farming method that relies on the natural fertility of the land requires that the land be abandoned every three or four years, and the interval may be as long as ten years or more. The efficiency of land utilization is extremely low.
Li people adopt this primitive farming method in residential areas. In addition to the relatively closed environment, the lack of iron tools is also one of the important reasons. In this era, many farmers in Li Dong still used stone axes, shovels, hoes, etc. The only iron tools they had were the hook knives that Li people wore on their waists. Therefore, Li people were very interested in the tools provided by the people in Li Dong. Iron farm tools are of particular interest.
(End of chapter)