Chapter 272

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

The cement highway was silently laid forward. Transport beasts brought tons of volcanic ash; it is a natural cement material, and the ancient Romans used it to build the Colosseum and other magnificent structures.

Although Yu Weichao was not a professional construction engineer, he understood the history of almost all sciences — reading books was enough. Coupled with the car ECUs and book materials Chen Yi sent to the West Continent, self-taught success would be somewhat difficult, but building an illegal highway was very easy.

In 21st-century China, there are far too many highways that do not conform to regulations. Some people learn skills while wasting state resources; some people earn state resources after learning skills. In short, since even the County Magistrate's middle-school-dropout younger brother-in-law could use two crews of roadside migrant workers to build 20 kilometers of Class-2 highway, Yu Weichao wanting to build a highway reaching the West Continent was not too difficult a matter.

Excavators coordinated with transport beasts; the roar mixed with the beasts' mooing was the main feature of the Jiangma Highway. The crushed stone from the nearby stone mountains was of excellent quality, perfect for paving the highway. But while the crusher could use Earth products, transport could only rely on local methods; otherwise, not to mention building another highway, there weren't many people who knew how to operate engineering machinery. The excavators were used to dig deep into the mud; local rivers were numerous, the crisscrossing water system once resembled a swamp, and the surrounding primeval-forest-like environment made passage conditions increasingly harsh, to the point that using excavators to dig five or six meters underground was commonplace.

Sang Chengqiang led three logging teams one step ahead, responsible for felling various towering trees, creating conditions for widening from the start. The felled timber also had many uses; at least sending it back to Shuizhai was very convenient, and even using it to build a simple dock was not bad.

Song Zhuang led two inspection teams on patrol at Shuizhai and the construction site; his subordinates also included a native medical team, members mainly from the distant Shang Yicun and foreign mercenaries, cooperating with a small amount of modern medicine, at least guaranteeing the workers' safety.

The remaining engineering and security projects were uniformly managed by She Lei, under whom were dozens of newly arrived trainees. As for the little fatty Li Changning, although he looked the most like an official among the trainees — being both clever and rule-breaking — Chen Yi only let him do miscellaneous affairs, and in the days when the Hall Master's word was law, he was also full of enthusiasm but helpless.

After one week, the highway had reached a length of 1.5 kilometers, but the manpower used was also increasing day by day, soon exceeding 1,000 people, gaining a speed of 100 to 300 meters per day.

Although in the eyes of Yu Weichao and the others, such construction was far too slow, in the eyes of West Continent people, "Jiangning people" had already become a synonym for the miraculous. The saber-toothed beasts that many locals feared most, as long as they approached within 1,000 meters of the logging group or the highway infrastructure group, had no way to survive; the perpetual crossfire even once tore these beasts, about 10 meters long and extraordinarily agile, into pieces, to the point that She Lei had to delay the firing time of the second heavy machine gun at the workers' suggestion — if the first heavy machine gun suppressed the beast within two seconds, then the second heavy machine gun need not fire.

As a result, some intact saber-toothed beast meat became available for the natives building the highway to eat.

The power of the heavy machine gun truly sank into hearts at this time. Including Yun Village and Xia Yun Village, Lie Village and the two Xia Liecun, as well as Shang Shicun and four Xia Shicun, all had surrendered to the Jiangning people. According to West Continent tradition, such surrender meant that before the Village Chief died, no villager could resist the Jiangning people — this self-binding method was also a way of survival, because in city-state wars, villagers had neither the ability to resist the Knight Order's charge nor the ability to survive the heavy infantry's sweep, so they could only quietly submit to one side, seeking a certain living space. After all, no matter which temple or which city-state, all needed basic commoners as a foundation, just like the current Jiangning people, whether stone mines or highways, all needed large numbers of hands.

Of course, surrender was not eternal allegiance to one side; it had a small yet huge loophole: allegiance was only valid while the Village Chief lived. After the first Village Chief died, unless a new allegiance ceremony was held, the village could theoretically re-swear allegiance to any other party. The current Yun Village, Lie Village, and Shi Cun's ceremonies of allegiance to Ma La could all be traced back five generations. Later comers, although they paid tribute and grain, were merely ordinary subordinate villages. Even after allegiance, if the current village wanted to rebel, they only needed to hang the Village Chief, or the Village Chief commit suicide, and they could re-swear allegiance to a new city-state under a new Village Chief's leadership.

In the eyes of Yu Weichao and the others, the true significance of such allegiance lay in acknowledging Shuizhai as a city-state, although Ma La's nobles certainly would not acknowledge it.

A Humvee spraying heat slowly drove on the newly built highway; the machine cannon slowly rotated under Qin Dajiang's operation. He was a Sixth Term trainee, coming to the West Continent to obtain A+ loyalty. Compared to many classmates' varied emotions, the thick-skinned Qin Dajiang adapted to life here the earliest.

As expected, the trainees who entered work earliest had the best treatment. He and four other trainees became the only operators of the Humvee in the entire city, while the trainees who entered working state last had to be organized into a small, sharp new inspection team, patrolling everywhere, exhausted every day not to mention their status was slightly lower than trainees with titles.

When a person stays in a place long enough, they naturally transform their thinking mode, generating new demands and thoughts based on local conditions. The trainees, on the West Continent, after the initial fear and confusion passed, naturally wanted better living conditions, and some official-obsessed ones popped up, wanting to gain new powers.

Yu Weichao accepted all comers, inquired in detail about each person's skills and filed them, then tried to assign positions. This still caused some shock among the trainees; if the current environment weren't comparatively bad, everyone probably couldn't have resisted the desire to be an official. Modern officials have free housing, free cars, superior social status, and can benefit descendants — this is the main motivation for ordinary people to become officials.

But conditions on the West Continent were much more arduous; aside from slight improvements in basic living conditions, there were hardly any substantive things. But no one was stupid; everyone knew that once the Xima Highway was built, all conditions would inevitably take a great leap forward, and some had already started inquiring whether among noblewomen there were beauties like immortals, or young lolis.

Rulers!

This word lingered constantly in Qin Dajiang's mind.

In fact, the current trainees all had servants attending them; no one had to clean rooms or boil water and cook; Simu Village's hired servants came at call, and were clever and quick-witted, but in terms of being pleasing to the eye, there was basically none.

A burst of laughter came from inside the carriage.

Qin Dajiang turned his head and happened to see the Basic Construction Group trainees there knowing work.

He also slightly curled the corner of his mouth.

Everyone actually came to the West Continent together; Qin Dajiang and the others had active minds, not such strong resistance spirit, and under the Hall Master's guarantee that benefits would not change, they just treated the West Continent as a foreign country.

But some trainees didn't get it, always wanting to stir things up, only silently entering working state after all the good jobs were allocated. As a result, their evaluations not only dropped a grade, but they could only work in the Basic Construction Group.

"Leaving the highway, everyone be careful." Xiao Zhuo, who was driving, shouted, and stomped on the Humvee's accelerator.

Front was the yet-unpaved crushed stone bumpy road surface; trees on both sides of the road had likewise been cut down; just wait for the cement crew behind to lay things down, and the main paving work would count as complete.

But Qin Dajiang and the others had to keep going forward, patrol length exceeding 10 kilometers. The upper echelon of Shuizhai was most worried about encountering some strange animals, causing casualties at the forward dark forts, so they needed them to confirm survival conditions.

Xia Jia of the Basic Construction Group heard the Humvee's roar and deliberately lowered his head, not looking. Think of him, at home with no worries about food and clothing, never expecting to come to such a miraculous land — and doing the most bitter, most tiring earthwork excavation. He originally wanted a vacation, but no matter what Yu Weichao wouldn't give it; by the time the dispute ended, only the Basic Construction Group work position remained, and he didn't even have the qualification to operate an excavator.

"All of you move faster." Xia Jia couldn't help but shout.

The trainees were all issued Level 3 konjac; this was the largest commodity Shuizhai purchased from outside besides grain; those merchants specializing in temple commodities were about to love them to death.

The three overseers of this group heard Xia Jia's shout, immediately put down the iron spades in their hands, and roared: "All heard Lord Jiangning's words, speed up."

The workers complained incessantly but buried their heads piling earth. Large-scale earth excavation had excavators, but where the excavated earth was used required workers to do it.

A single transport beast could carry three to five tons of earth, enough for a 20-person Basic Construction Group to dig for a long time.

Overseer Tu Shier sidled up, grinning as he passed a cigarette to Xia Jia, nodding and bowing: "You see, shall we go arrange the food first?"

"Go ahead." Xia Jia didn't take his cigarette. The only substantive benefit overseers had over workers was a box of cigarettes every two days; in the tedious wilderness life, this was a pretty good benefit. The food, however, was praiseworthy; there was always sufficient meat, and vegetables were abundant — the West Continent's sunlight conditions were over 10 times Earth's, meaning from a macro perspective, the food abundance here would be 10 times Earth's. Plus with vast land and sparse population, everyone could eat meat.

However, aside from food, clothing, lodging conditions, and other environments, the West Continent was far more miserable than ancient Earth people — wild creatures here dared to openly attack humans.

"I'm going to take a leak, you watch." Xia Jia walked down the earth-padded roadbed; the other two overseers hurriedly agreed, urging the workers even more vigorously.

Overseers were villagers from Shang Tucun or Shang Shicun, while workers were villagers from Xia Tucun or Xia Shicun. Due to frequent participation in large projects, their clan management was much stricter than other upper villages; aside from not killing, all kinds of punishments were available; as long as Shuizhai paid enough money, there was no need to worry about anything.

Xia Jia didn't want to worry either.

Leading the Basic Construction Group alone, with not a single Earth person around who could talk, this kind of life.

He vigorously shook his drained clean calves, humming the national anthem while fastening his trousers; in such an arduous environment, besides singing red songs, nothing could lift one's spirits.

"Mmph"

"Hah."

A dull cry came from ahead. Xia Jia frowned, thinking: Beating people again? These barbarians.

His right hand pressed on the pistol grip, left hand waving a machete, he once again passed through the dense grass.

The scene before him instantly frightened him.

A ground full of corpses.

And more than ten natives wrapped in grass leaves were finishing off the moaners.

"There's still one." Some native language shouted out, making Xia Jia stagger, nearly falling to the ground.

Two wooden javelins whistled and stabbed into the ground on his left and right sides.

Xia Jia's mind went blank, as if a long time passed, before the Hall Master's so-called key points from the safety education class rang out: Fire a warning shot, don't kill, release a signal flare!

He immediately drew his pistol, pointing forward.

At this moment, the nearest long spearman was only four meters away from him.

……(Unfinished, if you want to know after this, please log in to www. qidian. com, chapter more, support author, support genuine reading!)