"Where are the materials?"
"Bricks and cement. [Read the latest chapter] The fleet left us a few bags of cement. There are also some bricks and tiles, and we made the wooden boards ourselves. It won't take much to build a culvert anyway. Just buy nails and lime at the market opposite. .”
"Okay, why don't I go to Anyu Market tomorrow to sell some goods so as not to use the fifty taels of emergency reserves."
The next day, Wang Tao took Wang Degang, Shi Jinxi and others to change clothes and go to An Amusement City. This time he brought a simple four-color gift, which was a sign that he was visiting the place after the new house was completed. Hu Xun naturally also socialized and gave two soup sheep as a gift in return. He also took the opportunity to lament the hardships, saying that it was not easy to maintain the place. The county had no money, there were many reminders, and the place was heavily coerced. Since shopkeeper Wang wanted to establish a village here, he naturally had to socialize with the county and make a land deed. Various miscellaneous tax assessments will inevitably be shared together in the future. The words were extremely polite. Wang Tao naturally agreed one by one. Try to win the tolerance and support of local forces and the current guiding ideology of cooperation with indigenous forces.
Wang Tao took people around the market and sold some soju and sugar - both of which were very popular, and got some loose money. I bought some pieces of homespun cloth dyed with indigo and wanted to find a tailor to make local clothes - the sailors were too conspicuous in their 19th-century military uniforms. But there were no tailors in the market, so I had to ask Hu Xun for advice and asked his servants to make some. I also bought some rice, pumpkin and vegetables from the market to improve my food. I saw iron pots and clay pots for sale. I also bought a few. After everyone had packed up and was about to leave, they saw live chickens being sold in the market for two cents each. Wang Tao bought five or six of them and asked the navy soldiers to tie them up and hang them on a pole to take back.
After leaving the village gate, I found a lime kiln on the beach that specialized in burning lime with oyster shells, and bought a few sacks of lime. Shi Jinxi haggled among the fishermen on the beach for a long time, and bought a small sampan for one tael of silver. The boat was small and could only hold seven or eight people, but it was enough for use in the bay. Back in Yulinbao, Wang Tao asked him to put the pots and pots in the kitchen for use - there would be no need to use a lunch box to cook in the future. At least I can make some soup, cook rice or something.
"You bought so many chickens and came back to prepare the tooth sacrifice?" Lao Di was a little surprised.
"Eat eggs. Raise chickens." Wang Tao put down the chickens. "It would be a waste not to raise chickens in such a large yard."
"The floor is full of chicken manure? It stinks!"
"Would you like to put a chicken pen around?"
“What do we feed the chickens?”
"Leftover rice. Coconut meat can also be used. Put the chickens outside the fort during the day and let them find food on their own. Then come back at night and feed them more feed. It's very economical." Wang Tao was confident.
"This is still an all-natural green chicken. Okay, it's up to you." Lao Di wondered if Wang Tao suddenly wanted to be a farmer. He remembered something and took out a copy of the telegram from his pocket.
"What is this?" Wang Tao received the telegram. It was an encrypted telegram. The calling number was the expedition team's Hangzhou number, and the receiving call number was Lingao Telecom Main Station.
"Strange, this is not a message from Hai Mi."
"That's right, Shen Yuefeng collected the newspaper and couldn't decipher it using the code book. It's definitely not from Hai Mi."
"This is rare. Didn't it say when it came out that the expedition team all used Haimi electricity? Even the stay-at-home fortresses like us use Haimi electricity to communicate."
"And it came from the Hangzhou, not the flagship Zhenhai."
"It's probably a telegram from the Intelligence Department or the Internal Affairs Department. Only they have this power."
Wang Tao led people to cut branches from the woods, transport gravel from the beach, and build a chicken coop under the wall of the Yulinbao compound. Plus a chicken pen. When the weather is bad, let them move around in the pen.
Some of the sailors were from farmers and were no strangers to these things. They were good at farming with great interest, and they all became interested. Some suggested growing some vegetables themselves to avoid wasting chicken and human manure.
"No way, you want human poop?" Lao Di was shocked. I remembered that when I was training in the countryside, the smell of the big manure pits on the roadside was really horrible.
"Of course, otherwise the toilet would be full?"
"I originally planned to dig a ditch and wash it directly into the sea."
"It would be a waste to rush into the sea. Just dig a hole outside the castle and just wash everything into the hole. Put a lid on it and it won't stink anywhere."
"Let me declare in advance, when the time comes to gain weight, don't ask me to do it -"
The vegetable garden is located outside the wall of Yulin Fort, in a corner sheltered from the wind. However, the soil along the coast is thin and gravelly. It will not survive if planted directly. Wang Tao asked people to build a flower pond of about 50 square meters with big stones to drain it. Then they took the sailors to dig out the mud from the hillside, transported it back with the wheelbarrow left for them by the Zhenhai, and filled it in one by one.
Others were bewildered by the ex-trainer's burgeoning drive, as if he was ready to make this his home. Bai Guoshi couldn't help but ask him if he planned to stay in Yulinbao for a long time in the future. Wang Tao laughed:
"Of course not. My goal is that the executive committee will give me a large territory in the future. Then I will lead my whole family and hundreds of immigrant families to colonize and open up wasteland and become a lord. Practice now, and I will have experience later. .”
"Oh?" Bai Guoshi became interested, "Where do you want to colonize?"
"Australia, Tasmania or New Zealand are all fine." Wang Tao was a little tired and took out a pipe from his pocket. Wang Degang filled it for his master quickly and heated the water from a nearby fire. A red-hot wood chip was placed on the pile. He took it and lit it, taking a few puffs:
"Smoking silk is much better than smoking those damn Holy Ship cigarettes -" he exhaled a puff of green smoke, "As for China, let the people on the executive committee take care of it slowly."
Wang Degang asked curiously: "Master, where is the place you mentioned?"
"On the other side of the sea." Wang Tao pointed to the sea level, "There is a big island that is evergreen all year round."
"How about I be your neighbor from now on." Bai Guoshi suddenly yearned for this kind of life: blue sky, white clouds, green pastures, and snow-capped mountains - this was probably what he thought about when he watched the behind-the-scenes of The Lord of the Rings. Impressions left behind in New Zealand.
"Okay, but can your girlfriend agree to marry you a bunch of wives?" Wang Tao teased him while holding a pipe in his mouth.
"Zhao Xue - she is not my girlfriend yet." Bai Guoshi was a little embarrassed, "I'll tell you later. I'm not allowed to have a little wife, I can always bring a servant or something like that."
"You are really an obedient and innocent man. But I don't think you may like to live such a life, Xiaobai." Wang Tao smiled and said, "Who can tell what will happen in the future? Maybe it will happen in Lingao. There are far more awesome metropolises in the world than New York and Shanghai. It’s not bad to be a veteran cadre in a metropolis in the new world.”
The work in the vegetable garden lasted for two days, and everyone fenced this precious vegetable field to prevent wild beasts from intruding. Then he got into the work of digging ditches. Bai Guoshi and Shen Yuefeng went out for exploration every day, because Jiang Hanqiu's immigration plan was likely to be implemented, so in addition to investigating resources, they also looked for possible future colonial sites and land for reclamation.
Lao Di led another group of people to dig ditches, a job he had never done before. However, the Great Library compiled a booklet "Simple Surveying and Architecture" for use by the expedition team. According to the book. I made some measuring instruments like levels myself. The diameter of the water intake channel is not large, but it must be covered with soil, so it must be dug deeper. The water intake is located on a river bank dominated by sand and gravel, and the water taken is relatively clean. It’s not easy to detect either. The water intake is below the waterline most of the year except during the dry season.
The water channel passes through the city wall and leads to the courtyard. There was originally a reservoir here, but it was originally drawn from the city moat, and the water quality was not as clear as that drawn directly from the river. After the river water is introduced, it can be used after sedimentation. The excess water flows through another channel into the toilet to flush the latrine, and the sewage flows directly into the fertilizer pit outside Yulin Fort. Sandy soil absorbs excess water quickly. For safety and health reasons, a wooden cover was added to the entrance of the pit. Wang Tao made another hole in the lid and inserted a bamboo pole with a hole in the middle.
"What is this for?" Everyone was confused.
"Drain the methane inside."
"Can't it be used as fuel?"
"Too little. But if a cigarette butt falls down, it will be enough to smear the walls."
Finally, all channels were covered with tile covers and covered with soil. In a few days, the traces will fade away, and no matter what channel, it will no longer be visible.
While Wang Tao and the others were carrying out infrastructure construction, Bai Guoshi and Shen Yuefeng shot a red deer during an inspection. The meat of this small deer is tender and delicious. After dragging it back, almost nothing was left, only a piece of skin was left. The cleanly gnawed bones and even the deer intestines were washed, salted and hung under the eaves to dry.
There are many wild beasts here, and you don’t even need to go too far into the mountains. The main hunter is Shen Yuefeng, who has hunting experience. Talking about the level of shooting. He is much more experienced than Bai Guoshi. In order to save bullets and avoid causing big noise, the hunting was carried out with a steel crossbow. Shen Yuefeng kept hitting common game such as pheasants and rabbits. The whole left-behind team was full of food. For these people who were engaged in heavy physical labor every day, it was a blessing to have an experienced hunter like Shen Yuefeng.
Seeing that Shen Yuefeng was able to hunt prey every now and then, Wang Tao started to think about other things. He proposed to dig a well in Yulin Fort.
"Why dig a well?" Lao Di felt confused after hearing this suggestion.
Bai Guoshi objected: "The groundwater here must be salty. In addition to bathing, it is not suitable for even watering the vegetable garden."
"Who said we need to use the water inside?" Wang Tao said, "This is a refrigerator! Do you understand refrigerators?"
The ancients did not have refrigerators. Except for areas in the north where river water can freeze, which can be used to store ice in winter and use in summer, wells can only be used to store easily digestible foods such as pork and mutton in other places. No matter how high the temperature is. The temperature in the well is generally maintained at more than ten degrees Celsius, which is enough to preserve it for several days.
So he started digging wells again. Well digging is a technical job prone to accidents. Although the "Simple Survey and Construction" in their hands contained instructions on how to dig wells, Wang Tao did not dare to act rashly. At this time, there were not much bricks and lime, so Wang Tao crossed the bay again to buy materials at Anyue Market. When he saw several wells in the city, he found out that there were local people who dug wells as a side job and hired them to do the construction.
The groundwater level in Yulinbao is very high, but water comes out only after five or six meters. Because the purpose is not to collect water, the diameter of the well is only 1 meter, and the walls of the well are made of bricks. The well-drilling master praised the cement, yellow sand and lime mortar they used because the adhesion is so good. He offered to give him a few bags if he could For cement, he would not charge for drilling the well, but the left-behind team had no leftovers, so they had to politely decline, saying that there might be some in the future.
Wang Tao said: "This shows that there is a market for many of our things. There is no need to stare at the mirror and sugar, there is a market demand for things like cement -"
"The demand for cement is pitifully low." Shen Yuefeng dismissed it. "It's not like you haven't seen what the people here use to build their houses - they can just make do with mortar. That is, for work like building well walls, cement mortar Only then does it show its superiority.”
Wang Tao thought about it. I really couldn't see anything that was particularly in demand here. Although sugar and soju are easy to sell, the local consumer population is really small, and they can't sell much before they become saturated.
"We should just collect resources honestly. Let the Foreign Affairs Department worry about the business."
After several days of inspection, Bai Guoshi identified a timber logging site. It is about 3 kilometers away from Yulinbao, but it is close to the bay. The timber can be dragged into the sea two to three hundred meters away. It would be impossible to transport the wood cut down every day to Yulinbao by manpower.
The job of most marines is to cut wood here every day. The cut trees are bucketed on the spot, dragged to the seaside with ropes, and groups of 5 to 10 logs are tied with rattan to form wooden rafts. They were arranged into groups of 4 to 5 and hauled by sampan to the beach in front of Yulin Fort and then towed ashore.
Although transporting timber involves sea transportation, the entire labor is still extremely arduous. Fortunately, Shen Yuefeng could provide a steady stream of meat. Even though it was small, it was still meat, and Shi Jinxi could continue to provide seafood. Several chickens also contribute some eggs every day. The food is not bad. In order to boost his morale, Wang Tao would read a paragraph every night no matter how tired he was. In order to raise the awareness of the soldiers, he no longer talks about "officialdom fighting" and other jokes. Instead of reading "The Complete Biography of Yue Shuo" every day, the purpose is naturally to prepare for ideological education in the future war with Jianlu. And from time to time, some poisonous fangs against the Song Dynasty were added, linked to the current situation, and used vigorously to show the great and upright image of the crossing group in opposing the Ming government and saving China. After talking about Yue Zhuan, Wang Degang also performed a stand-up comedy to lighten the atmosphere, and then let everyone go back to sleep. After implementing this, morale is actually good. ! ~!
