Chapter 31 Hydropower Station Construction Starts
In fact, the executive committee has never really unanimously agreed on whether to implement the large, time-consuming and labor-intensive project of hydropower station construction in the early stages of the crossing. This topic will become the focus of controversy in almost every meeting before the crossing. The objections were mainly due to concerns that this project would occupy a huge amount of human resources, and during the construction period, almost all other projects would have to be stopped in order to take care of its priorities. In the eyes of later generations, this was at best a small hydropower project in rural areas, but to the people who traveled through this time and space, it was a bottomless pit that could exhaust all manpower. Some people believe that instead of using technical personnel from various departments as low-level labor on construction sites, it is better to complete other infrastructure projects first and wait until sufficient manpower is available before proceeding with the construction of hydropower stations. Besides, if the construction goes slightly wrong and the rainy season is not over yet, then something serious will happen.
Opinions advocating the construction of hydropower stations as soon as possible mainly come from the industrial, chemical and energy sectors. The industrial parties sneered at the short-sightedness of liberal arts students - Sanya has no coal resources, and even steam engines cannot be used on a large scale at the beginning. If hydropower is not developed in the early stage, where will the power output required for industrial construction come from? Sharpening the sword does not waste time cutting firewood. Focus on building the most critical facilities first, so as to drive the subsequent construction of the modern industrial system. Otherwise, one step at a time, one step at a time, and we have to rely entirely on the manpower of the people to build infrastructure. Maybe in a year or two, everyone will still be working as migrant workers in the valley, farming land and moving bricks. In that case, it will take so much effort to cross over. What's the point?
As for the construction period that the other party questioned, it was Liu Shanxia from the Ministry of Construction who came forward to guarantee the project, claiming that as long as the personnel and materials were in place, the main project of the hydropower station would definitely be completed before the flood season.
In the end, the well-founded Industrial Party gained the upper hand, and allocated personnel and materials in the entire initial construction plan to unconditionally favor the hydropower station project. When the special working group returned to Base No. 2 from Li Dong, except for some members of the military and police department responsible for patrolling the outer border and the elderly, women, and children, all the large troops from the crossing were recruited as labor force, and even the members of the Executive Committee The headquarters was also moved from Base 1.
Sixty or seventy fishermen recruited from nearby have now become full-time workers on the construction site. In addition to carrying various materials, the few among them who have bamboo weaving skills are also responsible for weaving a large number of bamboo cages day and night. After the construction, the flow will be intercepted and a cofferdam will be built.
The Ministry of Agriculture directed the labor camp to open two hundred acres of wasteland on the east bank of the Tiandu River. After planting various vegetables, these dozens of Ming army prisoners were also escorted to the construction site of the hydropower station. Although they didn't know what the shorthairs were going to do, seeing the mountains of various supplies here and the hundreds of shorthairs coming in and out, the prisoners also knew that these shorthairs were probably going to do something big here. .
And the first thought that flashed subconsciously in Luo Shengdong's mind was that these shorthairs were going to build a city here? But then I thought about it and it seemed impossible. The stockade that Shorthair built on the beach was obviously not finished yet, so why did he rush upstream to build a city? Moreover, the terrain here didn't seem ideal for building a city. But when he saw the continuous flow of logs, sand and stones, bamboo cages and other utensils, it was clear that there was a big project to be carried out, and Luo Shengdong was also deeply confused by this.
Men from the labor camp were quickly assigned to work in a nearby quarry. It is said to be a quarry, but it is actually the location of the Tiandu Iron Mine. The people in the Ministry of Industry are very prudent, and they are quarrying and making preparations for the excavation of Tiandu Iron Mine. Perhaps the iron ore here has already entered the mining stage before the hydropower station is completed. This place is only three to four hundred meters away from the hydropower station construction site. In the early stage, the logging team had already carved a road through the forest, allowing two wooden trucks to pass side by side. The old carpenter Cai Hongzhan and his people worked overtime and built thirty pallet trucks in five days. Although the craftsmanship was a bit rough, fortunately the road was flat and the distance was short, so there was no need to worry about shaking. Fallen apart.
And almost all the Li people who came here with Fu Li stayed. Fu Li saw with his own eyes that the fishermen received white rice and salt from the short-haired Han people after work every day. Isn't that just selling their labor? How can we miss such a good thing so easily? We in Lidong have a lot of labor force that can be exchanged for grain and salt! So under the encouragement of Ning Qi and others, Fu Li also asked people to rush back to Fushan Cave and notify the cave to send more young and strong laborers.
Three or four days later, hundreds of Li people came from the nearby mountains after receiving the news. With so many Li people coming to the construction site, conflicts can easily arise if communication is not smooth. Zhou Hengxing had no choice but to set up a temporary bilingual teaching class after work in the evening to teach some vocabulary that would allow both parties to communicate easily. And Ningqi immediately launched the first "Li District Hope Primary School". Eight or nine Li children who came to the construction site with their parents were admitted to the school first, and Fu Li, the key training target, was certainly among them. Of course, it is currently impossible to impart any knowledge. Even literacy is too difficult for these Li children who have not received basic education. Ning Qi’s main teaching task now is still the same as Zhou Hengxing’s, trying to teach them first Some simple Chinese conversations to ensure smooth communication.
In view of the large number of local workers who came to participate in the construction, the executive committee had to allocate some of its manpower to build several bamboo sheds near the construction site for temporary housing of these workers. The tasks of the cooking team have also rapidly increased, and they have to cook more than 100 meals for more people every day. Fortunately, the nearby Li people continuously brought a variety of fruits, vegetables, delicacies, and fresh game in order to make trade, so the cooking team did not have to worry too much about the lack of sufficient ingredients.
In order to complete the battle as soon as possible, the executive committee also tried its best to transport all kinds of materials to the second base. Except for the "New World", almost all the diesel generators on the other ships were removed and shipped along with several high-power water pumps. Sailors from the Maritime Transport Department even risked capsizing and transported two JCB multi-function excavators and two Bobcat multi-purpose vehicles to the construction site by water using large wooden rafts. With the help of several engineering vehicles, the transfer of materials on the construction site has been greatly accelerated. And this became the focus of the local aborigines in the next few days - they had never seen this kind of strange vehicle that could drag things without a horse or an ox. Rumors that "the short-haired master knows how to do it" continued. Time flies by. On April 17, 1627, the second day of March in the seventh year of the Great Ming Dynasty, the Tianduhe Hydropower Station, the first real major project after the crossing, finally broke ground.
The later gimmick of leaders cutting ribbons with scissors is definitely out of place in this time and space. The members of the executive committee stood in the river on the bank and worked together to erect a sharpened log. Yan Chujie stood on a high shelf and hammered the log into the river. Construction kicked off.
Since there are natural river branches at the dam site, this greatly simplifies the construction steps and eliminates the trouble of building diversion channels. It is only necessary to intercept the water at the river branch and build a cofferdam to divert all the river water to the other side. The river channel, drain the accumulated water in the river channel where the dam is located, and then you can start building the dam body. And in this river with an average water depth of only four to five meters, it is not very difficult to intercept it.
Following the instructions of the technicians, the migrant workers erected wooden piles more than two feet long at certain intervals, and then drove them into the river bottom with sledgehammers. Construction started from both ends, and a sparse fence was soon built on the seven or eight-meter-wide river. Then a large bamboo cage filled with stones was transported by boat from upstream to the fence and dropped, so that the wooden pile fence could block the bamboo cage and quickly form an underwater dam.
After nearly a hundred large bamboo cages filled with stones entered the water, they have been connected to form a simple cofferdam rising out of the water. At this time, it is obvious that the amount of water flowing through the river here has decreased a lot, and the water level downstream has dropped by at least two or three meters. . At this time, the migrant workers began to pile up the fence wall and fill the gaps little by little with more wooden piles. The water intake heads of several high-power water pumps have penetrated deep into the river bottom and began to quickly drain the water in the river behind the cofferdam. The extracted river water flowed into another river through the pipes, which surprised the onlookers. Mouth from ear to ear.
By four o'clock in the afternoon, eighty-nine percent of the water in the river near the dam site had been drained, but the mud at the bottom of the river was still one or two feet thick, requiring at least a hundred people to dig for a whole day. However, the project commanders were not that patient and waited patiently to clear the mud. Commander-in-Chief Liu Shanxia ordered people to lay bamboo and wooden springboards from the bank to the middle of the river, and then asked the migrant workers to step on the wooden springboards and start laying behind the wooden pile fence. A large piece of tarpaulin was used, and then sacks of earth were used to build the main body of the cofferdam to block the small leaks that were already sparse. In order to build this earth-encircled weir, the preparatory committee also specially added two thousand linen bags and hundreds of square meters of special tarps to the material procurement, which are now in use.
In view of the relatively sufficient labor force at present, the project headquarters decided to start work day and night and implement three shifts. After dark, diesel generators will be used to continue to provide lighting, allowing migrant workers to go down to the river to clean up the silt in the river. Several LED headlights on both sides of the river and on the cofferdam illuminated the entire construction site brightly. This kind of lighting device without open flames amazed the new migrant workers who came today. Practice", which was originally a bit doubtful, suddenly became convinced.
The project progressed exceptionally smoothly, and the river bottom dredging that started the next day did not encounter any major problems. After the silt was removed, the intact rock base was exposed where the dam was sited. Liu Shanxia proudly said to Xiang Chinan: "Look, this is the benefit of doing the preparation work well! It doesn't require too much survey, just apply the distribution map of water conservancy projects in later generations."
Xiang Chinan said seriously: "Don't be too happy too early. Blocking the water in the cofferdam is only the first step. The real project has just begun now. Your boy has issued a military order in the executive committee to stop the flood before this year's flood season. It’s finished. Let’s go down and have a look.”
(End of chapter)