"There's no cure for this disease," said Hippo, "but quinine. We brought a lot. If not, Lingao has a large stockpile. So I'm not worried about the mortality rate - you can survive with quinine. But once an explosive epidemic occurs, I am afraid there will be a gap in beds and nursing staff, which will seriously affect the recovery of patients."
"We listen to you on this matter, and we will do whatever you say." Wang Luobin said, "In short, there cannot be an explosive epidemic."
The loss of labor force caused by epidemics is a very serious matter, whether it is death or illness. From a ruthless pragmatic point of view, when there is sufficient new labor force to fill it, the dead are better than the sick, and the sick require far more resources than the healthy. Not only are they unable to work, they also need manpower and material resources to take care of them.
The Crossing Group has not yet reached this level, and labor is still quite valuable. Each basic labor force takes 90 days from the time it is taken into custody in Guangzhou until it can be officially put into use. The cost of food, medicine and labor consumed in these 90 days is a huge expense.
"In addition to taking medicine, we must still focus on prevention. In particular, we must increase the supply of mosquito nets," Hippo said, "so that each person can have one. If we can't get enough at this stage, we should at least cover all the windows with gauze."
"As for burning artemisia to repellent mosquitoes, I reported it to the executive committee. Director Liu said that the supply of dried artemisia can be opened up, but if it is not enough, it will be purchased from the mainland. It is best to send someone to handle this matter."
"Does making artemisia annua soup have a preventive effect for everyone to drink?" He Fanghui interjected, "Isn't it said that artemisinin is a new generation of anti-malarial drug?"
"Artemisia annua has no killing effect on malaria parasites. What is effective is actually Artemisia annua. Secondly, even if there is Artemisia annua, it is still very difficult to extract the active ingredients at the current level of our pharmaceutical factory. Give it to patients honestly. Take quinine." Hippo said, "To be cautious, all elders must take preventive medicine from today on."
Subsequently, Chuanchuan Group launched a vigorous sanitation campaign, cleaning up buried garbage, filling low-lying areas, removing stagnant water, and installing window screens. They were very busy. A large amount of dried Artemisia annua and special pottery fumigation cages were transported from Lingao - with the fumigation cages, it is less likely to cause fires. The dormitories in the camp are all wooden houses, and careless use of fire would be a disaster.
The whole camp is filled with smoke from Artemisia annua day and night. In fact, there are very few mosquitoes on the beach. Artemisia annua is mainly instigating people. From Wang Luobin to the basic labor force, everyone is disturbed by this terrible smoke. Complaints are endless.
However, this set of measures did not seem to be very effective. After a few days, malaria began to enter a large-scale outbreak period. It started with a few people a day, and then it became more than a dozen or dozens of people a day. The hospital soon couldn't accommodate them. Hippo Care immediately vacated a number of independent barracks and dormitories as dedicated isolation wards. When there were not enough health workers, they moved immigrants All the women in the village were mobilized to serve as temporary caregivers.
Anti-malarial drugs are divided according to different conditions. The malaria parasites in this time and space are not yet resistant to drugs. They take effect almost immediately after taking the medicine, but even for such a person, it will take at least ten days from the time he gets sick to returning to work. As more and more workers fell sick, the hippos began to go crazy - there were not so many anti-malarial drugs prepared.
The health center did not estimate the malaria situation in Hainan to be very serious, and the anti-malarial drugs they carried were mainly prepared for future visits to Taiwan and Southeast Asia. After arriving in Lingao, malaria was only occasionally seen in most areas of Lingao, and it was more common in places close to Li District. This led them to have a wrong estimate of the severity of malaria in Hainan.
Calculating this, to ensure that workers can work effectively, each worker must be given preventive oral antimalarial drugs, which greatly exceeds their reserves. The mass production of quinine will have to wait for several years. What will happen if all the reserves are used up? And for malaria, quinine is not the best, and its therapeutic and curative effects are far inferior to chemically synthesized chloroquine and primaquine.
But now Hippo has no choice. The number of sick people is increasing day by day. Many people have poor physical fitness and overwork in the previous stage, and their resistance is very low. Even with the use of special drugs, they cannot survive. The death rate keeps climbing. From the beginning, no one died, to three or four people dying every day, and then to seven or eight, and then to more than a dozen people. The bodies of the deceased were carried to a remote beach and burned on a pile of firewood. At its peak, more than twenty bodies were cremated on the beach every day. So much so that the newly opened cemetery was full in less than a week, and He Fanghui had to urgently open a second phase.
The thick smoke from the burning of corpses every day caused great panic among the workers. Rumors spread that people who work on roadbed construction sites will be infected with miasma (actually it is not a rumor, the infected are mainly road construction workers), morale in the camp continues to decline, and there is an atmosphere of fear in the camp. Although in the crossing group No one dares to raise objections in the face of strong force, but from the reports of internal work network members, they know that workers' resentment and fear are increasing.
However, the construction progress has not slowed down. In order to show his example, Shan Daoqian goes to the front-line construction site with the engineering team every day. He has always taken his medication on time and is full of confidence in its preventive and therapeutic effects.
But the workers didn't see it that way, and were full of fear and resentment about continuing to work in the "miasma land." Netizens began to issue orange warnings: there will be an explosion soon*
People from the construction headquarters held an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures. A resolution was made: From now on, all seniors, regardless of their position, will set an example and go to the front-line construction sites in shifts. They do not need to work but just sit back and set an example to calm people's hearts; secondly, greatly improve the food supply standards, alleviate complaints and strengthen the labor force. Third, workers who enter the inner regions to work should first be given the compound anti-malarial tablets that were originally only distributed to veterans and soldiers. At the same time, hippos were sent back to ask for more anti-malarial tablets to ensure that everyone took the medicine.
However, the incident happened earlier than they expected. On this day, a strike broke out in the camp. A labor team sent to the road construction site refused to go to work under the leadership of the captain. Several other teams also kicked out or directly detained the captains and team leaders who wanted to take them to work.
Zhuo Tianmin was in the office of the labor camp when he heard the commotion and came out to talk to them. What greeted him was a tiled fumigation cage and other debris.
"We are not going to work," the workers shouted at him, "We are not here to die."
Zhuo Tianmin knew that the problem was becoming more serious minute by minute: although many labor teams did not explicitly call for a strike, they were still waiting and watching, unwilling to leave the camp to go to work.
Wang Luobin used the walkie-talkie to contact Zhuo Tianmin: "How is the scene going?"
"No, they refuse to go to work." Zhuo Tianmin wiped the sweat from his head and said with a gray face, "I will work harder..."
Zhuo Tianmin continued to earnestly ask them to give up the confrontation and continue to work, and promised that as long as they took their medicine on time, they would not get sick. The current patients were all infected in the past.
"...If you take these pills, you won't get malaria. I'll take them too. I can accompany you to the construction site..." Zhuo Tianmin didn't have a tin trumpet, so he had to shout at the top of his lungs.
"Go to hell with your medicine." The workers who were stuck in the barracks threw out the pills given to them. "Keep the medicine for yourself, we want to survive."
"Don't be afraid, everyone—" Zhuo Tianmin hadn't finished speaking yet. Several people who could no longer hold back rushed forward and punched him. He was knocked to the ground by one punch, and then more than a dozen pairs of hands squeezed over and grabbed him one by one. The moment someone shouted "beat him to death", he had already received several punches and kicks. Zhuo Tianmin was pulled so hard that he couldn't move, and a huge fear came into his heart: he was going to be beaten to death.
When he was knocked down, a riot broke out in the labor camp. Someone set fire to the office and looted items. They began to beat the health workers and "lackeys" such as the labor team leader and captain. Several female health workers were distributing medicine and did not run away for a while. After being kidnapped, Zhuo Tianmin's clerk escaped from the camp in the chaos and rushed to Yulin Fort to report the news. Those labor teams that were not involved in the commotion were quickly taken away from the scene by the team captains. The infantry squad responsible for security duties outside promptly controlled various key points according to the plan, preventing the further expansion of the riot.
Wang Luobin had already received news of a riot in the camp. Would he be shocked to hear that the office was burned down and Zhuo Tianmin was arrested by the workers, violently assaulted?
Xi Yazhou has arrived, fully armed. Brandishing a pistol in his hand.
"I think it's better to send out the army."
"Zhuo Tianmin is trapped inside, will he rush in hastily..." Wang Luobin hesitated.
"The people inside haven't reacted yet. When they do, they will keep a close eye on Zhuo Tianmin and use him as a hostage to bargain with us. It will be difficult to save people. There is chaos inside now, so this is a good opportunity." Qian Shui Xie also agreed to attack immediately.
"Okay, let's attack. We must rescue Zhuo Tianmin intact." Wang Luobin gave the order, "Try not to cause casualties."
"Let's begin." Xi Yazhou ordered the messenger beside him.
The infantry companies put on anti-explosion equipment formed a horizontal line and advanced into the camp. The stones that rained down on the shields and helmets made a crackling sound. The infantrymen lowered their heads and held up their shields, advancing forward without hesitation. The few who tried to resist were quickly defeated with sticks. After a few minutes, the infantry took control of the situation - the workers had neither weapons nor organization, and they didn't even know what they wanted to do. A few people tried to establish an organization, but they were broken up before they could organize themselves.
The workers who participated in the strike were driven out and sat on the open ground without moving and waited.
Zhuo Tianmin was beaten until his nose was bruised and his face was swollen, but his life was safe. Someone thought of taking him hostage, so he escaped.
"Lao Zhuo, you are suffering." Wang Luobin comforted him when he saw Zhuo Tianmin being carried out on a stretcher.
"I'm fine." Zhuo Tianmin raised his body and raised his hands with support, "This is not a big deal, don't make a fuss about it..."
"Okay, okay, you have a good rest first." Wang Luobin comforted him, "We will deal with it."
Zhuo Tianmin wanted to say something else. At this time, several limping female health workers wearing torn clothes supported each other and walked past while crying. Then several stretchers were carried, and some people were groaning in pain. Hum, some of them have their faces covered and are silent.
He sighed and lay down silently.
Wang Luobin asked Zhuo Tianmin to move back to his bedroom in Yulinbao and let Colgate take care of him. Zhuo Tianmin's briefcase, documents and pistol were all recovered. These things were all stored in the cement safe in the office and escaped unharmed.
The smoke from the office dissipated, and the office in the labor camp had been burned into a pile of charred and blackened wooden frames. If the fire had not been put out in time, it would have spread and the consequences would have been disastrous.
Ten people died in the riot, three health workers, five labor team leaders and captains, and two clerks. Those who died were all personnel trained by the Time Travel Group. Such personal losses made Wang Luobin very sad. The office was burned down, causing a batch of files that had not been backed up to disappear forever.
The punishment was swift and severe. Everyone agreed that beating elders, burning buildings, and killing indigenous workers went beyond the scope of a strike. Moreover, the Cross-Travel Group had never recognized the right of indigenous people to strike. Taken together, the senators considered this to be tantamount to rebellion.
"This matter must be handled in the bloodiest way," Xi Yazhou said excitedly, "How can you let them know that the elders are sacred and inviolable if you beat them instead of killing a group of them?"
"It's impossible not to kill just one person to serve as a warning to others." He Fanghui also firmly supported, "We killed many indigenous staff when trouble occurred. If we don't punish them severely, how can the indigenous staff who serve us feel at ease? We must find out the murderer and execute him in public."
Qian Shui Xie disagreed. In his view, workers' strikes are a normal demand for power. It's just that the method was a bit extreme - but he wisely did not raise objections. However, he did not express his approval.
On that day, all the workers stopped working and gathered at the entrance of the labor camp. All available troops from the Army and Navy gathered here, and they were stabbed like a forest of spears. It seemed very solemn and coercive. The natives knew from this atmosphere that they were going to kill someone.
A cremation pile had been piled on the beach opposite the entrance of the labor camp, with eleven corpses wrapped in white cloth placed on it. Several carpenters were installing a gallows not far away.
A brief trial was held before the pyre. Those who were accused of participating in beatings and attacks on elders, those who beat labor captains and health workers to death, and those who raped female health workers were all sentenced to death. One after another, with the brief sentence "In the name of the Senate and the people, condemned to death," they were pulled to the gallows and executed. During the hangings, the pyre was set on fire, and the flames soaring into the sky reflected the bodies shaking on the gallows—twenty-five people had been hanged at the end of the trial. v! ~!
