Chapter 212 Renovation Project of Guangdong Office
In terms of business, He Qiang really admired Schneider. He had all kinds of strange ideas in his mind. Some of his business ideas were even smarter than his own boss. He didn't know where he learned these tricks. He Qiang didn't know what "win-win" meant, but he knew that if this agreement was reached, it would be of great benefit to both parties. But He Qiang was still a little hesitant about the price required to reach this agreement - Schneider hoped to get more information about the maritime forces in Fuguang, and this was beyond He Qiang's scope of authority.
He Qiang pondered for a moment before speaking: "The most favorable treatment mentioned by Mr. Shi is naturally very good. However, it is inconvenient for me to reveal too much about what Mr. Shi wants to know. It is better for me to arrange it for Mr. Shi and talk to you personally." Can the boss discuss the details? ”
Schneider had not expected to succeed in one fell swoop, so getting such a breakthrough was a surprise. Since He Qiang was interested in helping Schneider arrange an interview, there was no need to rush. Schneider nodded with a smile and said: "Then I'll trouble you, Manager He!"
It took more than 20 laborers brought by He Qiang a full two hours to unload the cargo on the "Hai Xun 02". He Qiang's men counted correctly and presented the bill of goods to the supervisors of both parties for signature. After He Qiang signed, he handed over his hand and said goodbye: "What I said before will be reported to the shopkeeper at a fixed time, and then someone will be sent to the house to inform Mr. Shi."
After seeing off the people of "Fu Ruifeng", the Office of the General Office in Guangdong Province began to unload its own goods from the ship. After arriving at the pier yesterday evening, everyone's luggage had been loaded ashore and sent to the Liaison Office in Guangzhou. What was left on the ship were the daily necessities and some building materials sent from the base camp. The most important of them are hot water boilers and ceramic sanitary ware.
Because the Guangdong Office has more manpower and the space is relatively spacious, the hot water boiler ordered by the Guangdong Office this time is much larger than the one originally used by the Guangdong Office. For this reason, Schneider and He Xi have had it dismantled in advance. The backyard door outside the back room was opened in order to transport the thick and long boiler in, and two empty rooms were made in the back room, a smaller one as the boiler room, and a larger one as a public room. Bathhouse use. In order to improve the efficiency of use, the bathhouses for men and women are not distinguished, but are used directly according to time periods.
As for sanitary ware, in accordance with the requirements of the Guangdong Office, a large number of toilets, squat toilets and wash basins were produced. Not only are they enough for personal use, but we can also get some samples for marketing. However, the transportation of these things is only the beginning, and the subsequent installation work is the troublesome task.
Although it is good for the Guangdong Office to buy this house, due to the current limited living standards, this house does not have a complicated sewerage structure. Bathing water and domestic water can be discharged directly into the ditch outside, but a flush toilet must be installed. If you don’t have sanitary ware, you can only dig a septic tank. And this thing definitely couldn't be placed in the yard. Schneider and He Xi thought about it for a long time before deciding to install the septic tank outside the east wall. It is close to the reed marsh and no one would pass by here. Just cover it with a few wooden boards and have it cleaned regularly.
He Xi even wants to get it right in one step and directly build the septic tank into a biogas tank. In the future, the biogas can also be used to light fires, which can be used for cooking, boiling water, and lighting. However, Schneider believes that the amount of work is too large. Just laying the biogas pipeline is a very troublesome task, which is almost equivalent to completely renovating the Guangdong Office. After the opinions were reported, the executive committee quickly made a decision. Anyway, it was not short of the money. The Guangdong Office could build sanitary facilities according to the specifications of the biogas digester.
In fact, biogas digesters have been put into use since the beginning of landfall. After the establishment of various communes, biogas digesters have become the main energy used in commune canteens and bathhouses. The relevant construction technology has been tested in practice, and it is nothing more than infrastructure. The investment is larger, but in the long run the benefits actually far outweigh the expenses. Even the Black Earth Port on the far side of the Beibu Gulf has used biogas digesters as one of its basic energy facilities. Although there is no shortage of fuel in that place, the large amount of human and animal waste must be treated in a scientific way, and there is no local way to deal with it. How much arable land can be developed, so building a biogas digester becomes the best choice. .
Initially, the Guangdong Office in Guangdong was unable to dig and build facilities such as biogas pools outside the yard due to the surrounding environment. However, the Guangdong Office was not located in a prosperous area. Since the objective conditions allowed, the Executive Committee would not hesitate to build more fire pits. Some ceramic pipes and several trained plasterers were sent to the Guangdong Office to help them build biogas digesters.
However, no matter how well the Executive Committee takes care of it, it cannot allow the General Office to install a set of sanitary ware in every room of the General Office - that would really require digging up the entire yard of the General Office and re-laying sewer pipes. In desperation, this toilet can only be built as a public toilet. Fortunately, everyone has lived in the base camp for several months and has long been accustomed to the existence of various public facilities, so they don't think there is anything wrong.
The outsides of these ceramic sanitary ware and pipes are densely tied up with extremely thick straw ropes. It is impossible to see what is included without opening them. However, it was really troublesome to unload the boiler from the ship. This large iron can with a diameter of more than one meter and a length of more than two meters was not light. For safety reasons, the springboard was also built with two layers to prevent it from breaking under the heavy pressure. . A group of laborers struggled for a while before moving this thing from the deck to the dock.
In addition, there are several large nanmu boxes containing the weapons of the security personnel of the General Office of the People's Republic of China. In addition to the newly issued flintlock guns issued to all eight militiamen, there are also four guns, two long and two short, for use by Xiao Liang and Yu Yao. Of course, these long guns are usually locked in the confidential room and are only used when necessary. will be taken out. Schneider and He Xi always ran around the city of Guangzhou with nothing but no scruples. The two pistols issued to them had been sleeping in the safe of the Guangdong Office for a long time. However, the newcomers Xiao Liang and Yu Yao were much more vigilant due to their work. Except when sleeping, they basically kept their pistols in holsters under their armpits.
It was already noon when these things were transported back to the Guangdong Office from the dock. After everyone had a brief lunch, they started the renovation project of the Guangdong Office separately.
The renovation of the Guangdong Guangdong Office is divided into two parts. The first is the renovation of security and defense facilities, including the reconstruction and expansion of the back door, security doors and windows of the confidential room, glass slag on the top of the wall, an observation deck on the roof of the main building, etc. The reason for the reconstruction and expansion of the back door is that in addition to the two rooms in the back room that have been designated as bathhouses, several other rooms will be converted into warehouses for storing goods, and people in the back room may come in and out more frequently, so In addition to enlarging the back door to facilitate the entry and exit of goods, the door from the rear house to the third courtyard must also be modified to prevent outsiders from getting into the residence of the passers-by.
The confidential room located in the third courtyard is mainly used to store radio stations, weapons, money, important documents, etc. It can be said to be the core area of the entire General Office. In addition to the door of the house itself, all-iron anti-theft doors and windows specially customized from the base camp will be installed, and two stoneware water tanks filled with clean water will be placed at the door to prevent fire. As for installing glass slag on the wall, there is no technical content. As long as a ladder is set up with good cement, a layman can easily complete the work.
The second part is the renovation of living facilities, mainly the construction of public bathhouses, toilets and biogas digesters. Compared with security measures, this is the real "big project". After viewing the site, the plasterer foreman sent from the base camp said that it would take at least five days to complete the work. The main difficulty lies in the construction of the biogas digester, which requires laying a pipeline leading to the boiler room in the back room. In order to make full use of the biogas, everyone temporarily decided to make a room next to it as a kitchen, so as to save the time of laying another pipe to the existing kitchen.
The biogas pool had been dug outside the wall well in advance. Now all we need to do is apply cement to the bottom of the pool and connect the pipes. But at this time, everyone discovered a new problem - the foundation of the wall was dug extremely deep, and a large section dug along the root of the wall turned out to be bluestone. But the pond outside the wall had already been dug, and it was very troublesome to change the location. I had to keep digging deeper. Only when I dug a foot and a half did I finally find soil under the bluestone.
"Look at the quality of the building!" Sha Xi sighed at the side: "Even the foundation of the wall is so deep. This house in the Guangdong Office is worth buying!"
"It's just a small yard!" Schneider's life before time travel could be described as luxurious for ordinary people, and he was quite disdainful of Sha Xi's sigh. "Small yard? The money I worked hard to save for several years was just enough to buy a kitchen in a big city. Even a small yard is a dream for people like me!" Sha Xi said with emotion: "If I get really prosperous in the future, I would like to buy a piece of land and build a yard myself... Well, of course I have to marry some beautiful wives and go home."
"Don't worry, there will be a house, and so will my wife." He Xi patted Sha Xi on the shoulder and comforted: "These places will be ours in the future. If you are willing to do it, you can start a real estate business by yourself like Mr. Tao did." The company is fine too!”
That night, "Fu Ruifeng" sent someone over to spread the word that shopkeeper Li would ask Schneider to come to the house tomorrow. Schneider knew that the other party was probably moved by the conditions he offered, so he agreed first. After the visitor left, Schneider called He Xi, Xiao Liang and Yu Yao to his room to discuss today's meeting with He Qiang. The discussion was discussed once more.
Exploring the distribution of maritime forces along the southeast coast is one of the important tasks assigned to the Guangdong Office by the Executive Committee. This task is completely different from other business promotion, material procurement, immigration organization, etc., because the personnel of the Guangdong Office can hardly have direct contact with those pirate gangs, and the Guangdong Office does not have its own ships to conduct reconnaissance activities in the southeastern coastal areas. It is extremely difficult to obtain relevant information. "Fruifeng" is currently the most likely channel for the General Office of the General Office of the People's Republic of China to obtain intelligence information. Schneider also needs more advice from professionals in the Military and Police Department on how to make good use of this rare opportunity.
After He Xi listened to Schneider's story, he pondered for a while before asking: "Then what are you unsure about now?"
Schneider said: "I am very clear about the general direction. The Executive Committee is definitely aiming to combat hostile forces and control coastal areas. But I don't know what specific goals your military and police department want to achieve through this kind of intelligence collection. Very clear. For example, what information do we need to master? How detailed is this information to be useful? After mastering this information, what is our next goal? For this reason, we should propose to 'Furuifeng' What kind of request. I must know clearly what we want to achieve before we can find a way to bargain with Li Jifeng.”
He Xi nodded and said: "I understand. Let's put it this way, the Military and Police Department's military expansion plan for the southeast coast is not carried out independently, but will be gradually promoted along with commercial activities. We can't talk about it at sea now. What kind of armed forces, so it is unlikely to use military means to expand northward, so we still need to focus on collecting intelligence first, and establish contact with other maritime forces if possible. As for the details of intelligence, at present we only need to know the general outlines of these forces. The distribution of activities, their scale and their style of doing things will be enough. Of course, it would be better if it could be more detailed.”
"In other words, our main focus now is still on trade promotion and collecting military intelligence?" Schneider asked rhetorically.
"That's right. Mr. Shi, you can concentrate on doing your best marketing, and the information will appear naturally. No matter how big or small these pirates are, they do not exist independently from the mainland. Except for a few big ones, Outside of their own power, most pirate gangs are not engaged in production. All supplies must be purchased from the mainland, and they have no sales channels. The goods they snatch and the hostages they kidnap must go through middlemen before they can be exchanged. Cash and supplies." He Xi paused and said in a more serious tone: "These merchants who work with pirates are definitely money-hungry guys. As long as they are motivated by enough profit, they will sell everything, including the past. partners included! ”
"That makes sense." Schneider nodded repeatedly after hearing this: "As long as there is economic activity, there must be traces to follow. The ship of 'Furuifeng' can travel between Fujian and Guangdong all year round without incident. Ninety percent of it is because they have some secret relationship with the pirate group. Maybe we can get a lot of inside information from them.”
"I would like to add something about the strategic goals of the Military and Police Department on the southeast coast." Xiao Liang indicated that he had something to say.
"Currently, we have neither shipping capacity nor sales channels for the coastal areas east of Hong Kong, so our ships will not appear there in the near future, let alone any military measures. Therefore, the initial goal of the Military and Police Department is still Control the waters of the Pearl River Estuary." Xiao Liang said as he turned on the computer and brought up a map of the Pearl River Estuary for display: "Ships coming out of the Pearl River to Fujian generally pass through the strait north of Lantau Island. Ma Wan, Victoria Harbor, Tseung Kwan O, and the route out of Fo Tong Gate. There are many Ming military water forts from Lantau Island to Fo Tong Gate. It is unlikely that we will use military means to directly occupy strongholds in this area. "< br>
"There are Portuguese people in the waters near Macau to the west of Lantau Island. It is difficult for us to intervene in a short while, so there are not many options left for us." Xiao Liang's finger drew a circle on the map: "Wan The Wanshan Islands are very close to the Pearl River Estuary, Hong Kong, and Macau, and there are no Ming Dynasty garrison presence. If we set up a small-scale military stronghold in the Wanshan Islands, it is unlikely to arouse the hostility of the Guangzhou local government. "
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Schneider frowned and said: "If the scale is too small, does it make sense to set up a stronghold? Besides, we don't have warships now, so what's the use of putting some soldiers on a remote island?"
Before Xiao Liang could answer, Yu Yao rushed to answer: "How could it be useless? These garrison troops could disguise themselves as Ming Dynasty fishermen, conduct long-term surveillance of ship traffic between Macau and Hong Kong, and collect sea conditions in this area. Prepare for the future naval stationing. War cannot be fought right away. It may take five, ten or more years before we start to actually attack the mainland, but the preparations actually started before crossing. The various military industry information, military maps, and those of us who have served as soldiers are all preparing for this goal. The continuous establishment of military strongholds in coastal areas is also one of the pre-war preparations! ”
"These preparations may never be effective until the day the war breaks out, but what needs to be done must be done after all." Xiao Liang took over and pointed to an inconspicuous island in the Wanshan Islands. Said: "This is Baili Island. Perhaps Mr. Shi has never heard of the existence of this island, but this place has always been the largest military base in the Pearl River Estuary. In order to defend the Pearl River Estuary, later republics completely destroyed this island. It is empty. There is a hidden dock that can protect against atomic bombs, a large granary that can feed hundreds of thousands of people for several years, an arsenal, an oil depot, and all kinds of facilities. You can imagine how many people it took to build this place. A lot of effort, manpower, material and financial resources, but all of this was for a war that never broke out. Until this place was opened as a tourist area at the end of the twentieth century, it did not really play a role, but no one can say that it existed. It makes no sense. The effect of preparations for war is often not visible to the eyes.”
Schneider said in astonishment: "I have been to Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau many times, but I never knew there was a military base so close... a hollowed-out island... I should really find time to visit that place before traveling through it. One look! ”
"If you have a chance, you should pass by there next time when you return to the base camp. You can ask the boat to dock there." Xiao Liang said with a smile.
Schneider shrugged and said: "What I want to see is Baili Island after the military fortress was built. There is nothing interesting to see on this desert island now."
(End of chapter)