Chapter 557: Not Much of a Big Deal

Only after truly seeing a house they considered sturdy collapse due to a slight tremor did everyone realize why Baifeng had been so panicked.

Then, following Baifeng's instructions, all departments had everyone move out into tents during this season that was still biting with spring chill; having not been separated from primitive society for many years, and given the possibility of having to travel far, every household had a tent, and even if they didn't, they could quickly rig one up using the animal hides in their homes, so Huaxia was not afraid of lacking tents to use.

Firewood was all collected and stacked; now, besides avoiding the earthquake, one had to be wary of fire hazards, as all the Threshing Grounds were filled with tents, and since the living quarters and fire pits were so dense, it was hard to guarantee that a fire wouldn't break out.

After all houses had undergone several rounds of inspection, it was confirmed that as long as they were built by the Huaxia Ministry of Works and made of Cement and Red Brick walls, there were no problems; although people still dared not continue living inside, they could go in to retrieve items without fear of collapse.

Huaxia's water conservancy had relatively major problems, with many water pipes being crushed and broken; ceramic pipes, even with joints later sealed with Cement, were indeed impossible to be sturdy, but their low production cost was their greatest advantage.

It could not be said that Huaxia's water conservancy system was aging—one really didn't need to worry about that with ceramic pipes—it was just somewhat backward; otherwise, those in the outskirts of the city wouldn't be complaining about the inconvenience of using water, because the water simply couldn't reach them.

After a rapid emergency repair, the people from the Ministry of Works first plugged the leaking spots to avoid being flooded by the water, before proceeding to reinstall the pipes.

Looking at the densely packed tents, Baifeng felt a mix of emotions and didn't know what to say; this period of time could actually be considered fortunate, as two months earlier, the weather had been so freezing that surviving the Winter was difficult, and if it had been pushed back any further, it might have been days of continuous rain.

Fortunately, they were not affected this time, and Lema City was also fine, because the quality of the houses in Lema City was better, so not a single one collapsed.

In the evening, Baifeng held an ad-hoc meeting; the content was basically to continue maintaining the current situation for a few days, then to appease the residents in the outskirts of the city, and to strictly forbid them from continuing to live in those self-built earthen houses; the Ministry of Works now needed to plan the location of the New City, and the Ministry of Revenue needed to count the population in the outskirts that would be relocating.

Now, letting the people in the outskirts move to the New Town also had a relatively good excuse, which was for their own safety; Huaxia could continue to build houses for them, but if a person was gone, they were truly gone; with the speed of the Ministry of Works, it could be guaranteed that they would move into their new homes before the arrival of Winter this year.

Just as Baifeng was about to finish speaking, the earth began to shake again, lasting for over ten seconds; Baifeng felt it was much stronger than the first time, so Baifeng judged that this time was the true major earthquake, while the previous two were just minor tremors, serving as a warning.

Because it was quite late and everyone was already living in tents, there was no need to worry about anyone being crushed inside a house, and besides, this had been said many times over; if some people were not mindful or didn't use their brains and continued to go home to live and were then crushed, under the current circumstances, Baifeng would not send people to rescue them.

The situation was complex and the lighting was poor; in the outskirts of the city, if there were just one more small aftershock, the rescuers would definitely be crushed; using more of his own obedient and capable people to trade for disobedient and useless ones was a losing business that Baifeng would certainly not do.

After all, his Soldiers were not the People's Liberation Army.

However, the problems with water conservancy still had to be inspected once more; it was best to just shut off the water entirely, as in the current situation, it was impossible to continue restoring the water supply.

The public only had some brief panic; fortunately, they were all living in tents and were in no real danger; without having truly seen houses collapse and mountains crumble, one would not understand how terrifying an earthquake was; of course, Baifeng did not want them to witness it either.

In the following few days, Huaxia's focus remained on dealing with the earthquake; fortunately, there were only three minor aftershocks, which many people didn't even feel.

To measure whether there was an earthquake, Baifeng used a cup filled halfway with ink, then stuck paper to the inner wall of the cup without touching the ink, so that the problem of absorption would not occur.

Then, he placed the cup on a wooden stick driven into the ground; as long as there was an earthquake, the ink would be shaken up and stain the paper; although it couldn't predict an earthquake, at least it could let one know that an earthquake had occurred.

Until several days had passed without an earthquake and everyone seemed a bit impatient, Baifeng announced the cancellation of the alert and a return to normal status, but cautioned that one must remain vigilant when sleeping at night; as long as there was a tremor, one should run immediately.

The earthen houses in the outskirts of the city had mostly collapsed; Baifeng had the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War help the residents clear the area, and warned them again not to build such houses themselves anymore; building a chicken coop or a dog kennel was fine, and a woodshed or a grass hut was also fine, but no one was allowed to live in them.

With the earthquake matter resolved, Huaxia's general meeting resumed; the reform of the Ministry of War had already concluded, and the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Agriculture still needed to undergo reform, mainly to improve the treatment of technical workers and create a gap between them and ordinary laborers.

"Artisans of the Ministry of Works shall henceforth adopt a grading system; no matter the craft, it must be graded, based on ability; the previous apprenticeship system can still be retained, as it is effective and very obvious; artisan grades will be calculated based on ten levels; you gather the workers with the best skills in Huaxia now, and I will review them and set their grades. Future treatment will also depend on the grade; the higher the grade, the better the treatment."

The people from the Ministry of Works all showed joy, because although their Ministry was very important, the artisans were indeed looked down upon by others, especially those who had studied books, because in their eyes, most of these workers couldn't even recognize characters, so how could they be considered important?

Baifeng did not teach these professional views in school; what he upheld was that people with ability were the most important, even if all you could do was play with mud, but if you played with mud well, it was also very important to Huaxia.