Chapter 666: Distributing Axes

Seeing that everything was prepared, the Company Commander had everyone who received food yesterday step out of the ranks; those who were called could only step out, filled with confusion—what was going to happen now?

The instructor arranged for these men and women to stand in a group, and Yinyang and Cangyun, who had been briefly separated, were once again standing together.

"In view of your obedience and good performance, you do not need to participate in today's work. You will stay in the camp and tidy up, cleaning the entire camp thoroughly. As for the firewood you will need to burn in the future, let these disobedient Slaves prepare it for you; consider this your reward."

Upon hearing this, the Slaves finally set their nervous hearts at ease. They hadn't expected such a good thing; they felt that being able to receive food again was already good enough, and now they had landed an easy task. Although they didn't know how Huaxia split wood, it certainly wouldn't be much different from what they were used to, which required great effort. By comparison, the work of cleaning was insignificant, and with so many of them, they could easily finish it all in half a day.

After these people's work was arranged, the Company Commander gave an order, and all the male Slaves were led by the Soldiers toward the direction of the Dahe, while the people who had been contacted to help them salvage the wood had not yet started work.

Because this job was considered overtime for them, and they were very familiar with it, they had a precise grasp of the timing for when the wood from upstream would arrive during the low-water period of early Winter.

When the Soldiers arrived at the location with the Slaves, they could only stand in the cold wind and continue waiting. The Soldiers were dressed warmly enough and did not fear this bit of cold, but the Slaves were not; Huaxia had not issued them clothes, so those wearing thin garments, or even some who were bare-chested, could only grit their teeth and endure. Those in the center of the group were better off and could not feel much chill, while those on the edges of the formation could only serve as windbreaks for those inside.

The Slaves would certainly be issued clothes when Winter arrived, but these were old clothes that Huaxia had already phased out. There were many of them; ordinary families had enough clothes, and wealthy families could have new clothes every year, so naturally, they looked down on tattered, old garments, and those clothes piled up in the warehouses of various departments, waiting for a day they could be used. In fact, as trade goods, those old clothes were quite popular.

A single department certainly could not produce that many old clothes, but when all were pooled together, plus the fact that citizens could exchange old clothes and food for new ones, and tenant farmers could exchange food for old clothes, the National Treasury had accumulated a considerable quantity of old clothes, enough for the Slaves to wear.

Plus, the camp's bathhouse was basically built; after letting the Slaves boil water themselves and wash their entire bodies clean, they could be issued new clothes. With clothes to keep out the cold, training in Winter could proceed smoothly.

Time gradually passed, and the Workers carrying tools also arrived at the Matou. They did not feel they were unpunctual; the arrangement given to them by their superiors was exactly this. The leader greeted the Company Commander and chatted about the details before waiting for the wood to arrive.

Their estimation was also very accurate; after waiting for about one hour, they saw the wood, tied into rafts, floating downstream. Soon, it would arrive at their dock.

The Workers prepared long hooks and simultaneously urged the Company Commander to let the Slaves prepare to work.

Thus, the Company Commander gave an order, and the Slaves cleared some space. Ropes and wooden levers for lifting logs were already prepared on the ground; these were standard items at this Matou, all polished and ready. One only needed to place the wood on the laid-out ropes, insert the wooden levers through both ends of the ropes, and then a team of people could lift the wood and walk.

The log rafts drew closer, and the Workers raised their hooks—or rather, long Spears with ropes at the tail and barbs—and threw them with force, pinning them into the log rafts. Once several Spears were firmly embedded, they pulled the ropes together, bringing the log rafts to the shore.

Afterward, the Workers walked up the sloped embankment, cut the grass ropes binding the wood, raised the hammers in their hands, and after driving several long nails into one end of the wood, they tied the ropes securely. The nails were to prevent the ropes from slipping. Once tied, they had the Slaves on the shore drag the wood up.

Because the delivered logs were huge and had been soaked in water, the weight was truly too heavy, and the Slaves did not have much strength right now, so the Company Commander and instructors directly arranged for groups of thirty to drag the wood. The logs they dragged up were the ones that specific group would have to carry.

Under the direction of the Workers, the Slaves laboriously dragged the wood onto the shore, placed it on the laid-out ropes, adjusted the position of the ropes, and then inserted the wooden levers, letting the Slaves exert force together to lift the wood.

The Slaves did not know any work chants, so the instructors could only shout "one-two-one" to lead them, which barely kept them from collapsing as they walked shakily toward the designated location.

For the subsequent logs, the Slaves followed the same procedure, dragging them onto the shore one by one and then carrying them to the construction site.

The women received the tools sent by the Ministry of Works; what they received were saws, large saws as tall as a person. Fortunately, they were not difficult to use, and the saw blades would not easily break, as they were thick and wide; even if they got stuck while sawing wood, it was not a big problem.

When the first log was carried over, the women were arranged to go over and begin, according to instructions, to break the wood into shorter pieces. The Slaves, already exhausted to the point of collapse, were not allowed a moment of rest; they were called over, and in their eyes of extreme bewilderment, each was issued a Knife—an axe.

When the axes were issued, the Soldiers' Knives were unsheathed, and their Crossbows were loaded with Arrow, pointed at the ground. If the Slaves had any abnormal reaction, they could respond quickly. Fortunately, the Slaves' eyes were filled only with confusion and bewilderment, not the joy of receiving a Weapon.

Upon learning that these were tools for them to split firewood, they finally calmed down. Only then did they dare to touch the cold axes with their hands. They knew very well that the value of this axe was far more precious than their own lives; let alone ten, even a hundred of themselves might not be able to trade for such an axe. Thus, they all held the axes in their arms, terrified of dropping them.

The Soldiers also made it very clear that these were not given to them directly, but only for their temporary use; they had to be returned during the noon break, and if any were lost, they would be beheaded directly.