Chapter 640 Construction Site
The battle of manpower. In an era without large-scale mechanical engineering, all projects required manpower to carry out. This question was obviously out of bounds for Africans who had just stepped out of primitive society.
On the west side of the Mitumba Mountains, in order to open a way forward for the Hesse Railway, the Hesse Provincial Government is preparing to mobilize 400,000 people to repair the planned line.
Of course, 400,000 people could not be gathered at once. In addition to applying from other places, more importantly, people from Hesse Province were mobilized, and even more militiamen were needed to ensure the orderly progress of the project.
In addition to suppressing black people, there are also various dangers in the virgin forest, which also need to be dealt with by local people. After all, they have accumulated a lot of experience after living here for so many years.
Just logging is a pretty big project. Not only is it as easy as knocking down the trees, but the underground roots also need to be cleaned up.
The primeval forest in Hesse Province is quite dangerous. In the primeval forest that has not been developed for thousands of years, the trees can easily reach more than ten meters high, and some thirty or forty meters are not uncommon. If the direction is not controlled well, they may be randomly smashed to death. One lucky guy, even in the 21st century logging is a dangerous job so there is no way around it.
The black lumberjack, with a rope tied around his waist, climbed to the top of the tree neatly, stretched out his hand to take out the rope from behind, tied it to the trunk with skillful movements, and then slid down.
Later, two lumberjacks were holding iron axes from East Africa and slashing at the tree trunk. Finally, with the cooperation of more than a dozen people, a towering tree that had grown for an unknown number of years fell in a fixed direction. .
But this is far from over, because the felled tree did not fall directly to the ground. Instead, it was held up by the surrounding dense vegetation. If you want to move it completely to the ground, you can only cut down the surrounding trees.
"Chop down all the vegetation within fifty meters of the surrounding area, remove all the leaves, and throw them into the jungle aside. After the branches are repaired from the trunk, they are piled on the outside. The trunks are all processed into logs and stacked." Hans, the leader of the engineering team, said. Command according to the requirements of superiors.
The fifty-meter area is considered a temporary construction site. Hans’s task is to lead the team to continuously expand the fifty-meter-wide road to the north, and then make it easier for subsequent construction workers to construct.
These logs collected after being felled and meeting the requirements will be processed by carpenters into railway sleepers or cable support poles for communication along the railway.
Wood that does not meet the requirements will not be wasted. The remaining branches will be used as natural fuel after being dried, which can be used to boil water for cooking and maintenance.
After all, it is a virgin rainforest, so there are countless parasites or fungi. For the safety of workers, workers are required to take a bath, wash clothes, and soak their feet every day.
And these all require hot water. Fortunately, this is a virgin forest and there is no shortage of wood. Of course, continuous rainy weather can easily wet these natural fuels, so the engineering team in East Africa will also be equipped with coal prepared from the rear. fuel.
“Sluggard, take your machete and go clean the branches and leaves. What’s the use of chopping the air?” Hans kicked a black worker on the **** who was paddling.
Hans manages more than fifty people, including seven from the Hessian militia alone, as well as six overseers and three cooks.
A supervisor is following four or five black people. Because it is located in a primeval forest, in order to prevent these black people from escaping, the Hessian government and the Ministry of Railways pay special attention to surveillance work.
This is not to make a fuss, but there are dense forests nearby and the terrain is complex. If the black workers really ran away, they would really run away, and it would be impossible for East Africa to go deep into the dense forests to track them.
With the explosion of steel production capacity in East Africa, East Africa's tools have been replaced one after another. Hans's small construction team alone is equipped with dangerous tools such as "pickaxes, axes, machetes, shovels, and iron drills" . Although the East Africans are holding thermal weapons, who can guarantee that these black people will not act stupidly and have to fight to the death with the East Africans. This is still a virgin forest and is not suitable for the use of thermal weapons, so it is better to be careful.
Of course, unlike East Africans who are full of worries, the vast majority of black workers have no such awareness at all.
It’s not that they don’t like freedom, but where will they go if they are unfamiliar with the place? Most of the black people in East Africa originally lived in the grassland areas of the plateau, and they were driven around by East Africans all year round to work. They would not stay in one place for a long time, so they were also very unfamiliar with the Congo rainforest. The only one in the team was The people who are more familiar with this place are the Hessian militia, or rubber agricultural workers.
Most people are offended by the dark tropical rainforest. The same goes for black people who live in savannahs all year round and enjoy the bright sunshine, so they are not stupid enough to go into the unfamiliar virgin forest.
And the most important point is that East Africans are in charge of food. If they really run away, how will they solve the food problem? If traditional hunting skills can still be used on the grassland, the rainforest will be numb. The ecosystem here is completely different from that of the grassland, and the animals are also very different.
Of course, a black man on the grassland cannot run away at all. In such an open environment, an East African can shoot him down if he is asked to run a hundred meters first.
Another key point is that under the rule of East Africa, the spirit of these black people has long been worn away. A few years ago, black people may have been stubborn and yearned for freedom. Now, black people in East Africa simply do not have the courage to confront the East Africans.
….
“The weather in Hesse changes all the time. It was sunny just now, but now it’s pouring rain,” Hans said.
“Captain Hans, let everyone take shelter from the rain first! It’s impossible to work in this weather.” said the militia captain Chris.
“How long will this rain last?” Hans asked.
"It's hard to judge. It may only take a few minutes, or a few hours, or even a few days. But these are not important. It's getting dark now, and you won't be able to see the sun in a while, so it's better to take advantage of it. Since it’s raining now, let’s call it a day and prepare dinner and hot water.”
Chris is a militiaman in the nearby village of Penensaari, so he knows the climate here very well.
"Well, that's all we can do. Let the black people hand over all the tools, count the number, and then go to the tent to take shelter from the rain. Hera and Will are responsible for keeping an eye on them. The others will take turns after two hours." Hans said.
Tools are relatively sharp objects, so they must be counted and handed in every time the work is completed. This is a necessary procedure for every black construction team in East Africa.
This regulation was definitely not born out of thin air, but was learned through **** lessons. There were once black people who took tools distributed in East Africa and opened the heads of East African overseers at night. After this happened too many times, recycling Tools became the rule for East African construction teams.
At night, Hans and his party gathered around the campfire and had dinner. The sound of rain outside the tent never stopped, and the damp wood crackled in the flames.
The black people sleep in a big tent, and their treatment is not as good as that of the East Africans. However, each of them is given two large bowls of rice, and a straw mat is spread directly on the ground. This is their bed, or floor.
Hessian railway is divided into four sections and started construction at the same time. However, the initial speed is slow. Weather and environment are obstacles to railway construction. In particular, Hesse Province has rainy weather throughout the year, which is very different from the dry season and rainy season on the plateau.
(End of this chapter)