Chapter 735: Setting Up Camp in Liuhuangdi

Now everyone had strength; at the very least, they no longer looked like they were about to die as they had before. Fan immediately arranged for everyone to use human labor to carry the supplies, then proceeded upstream along the tributary. A few small boats were also loaded with some supplies.

After seeing them set off, the Large Ship chose to return directly. They truly had too much to do and could not stay in one place for too long. Currently, Huaxia only had three Large Ships; they just took turns running back and forth between various places. If there were so many people to transport that even the Large Ships and small boats combined could not finish, they would have to dispatch two Large Ships.

Originally, according to Baifeng's plan, at least one Large Ship should have remained at the Huaxia Matou as a defensive force for Huaxia's waters. When war arrived, with the Dahe acting as a natural barrier, plus a sufficiently powerful warship, they could block the enemy on the Dahe.

Yet now, it was difficult for a Large Ship to stay at Huaxia for more than five days, and these five days could not even be considered a dedicated stay, but rather time spent waiting to load supplies. Seeing things go on like this, the Large Ship could not play its role in water warfare, and the Navy would turn from Soldiers into boatmen, but Huaxia truly could not spare the manpower to build another Large Ship.

Huaxia had been continuously cultivating Artisans in all aspects, but the time it took to successfully cultivate an artisan was truly too long. Even the best of those Artisans were still feeling their way forward, wanting to improve their techniques further. Sometimes Baifeng really wished that if only he didn't know so much, everyone would develop so slowly, and there wouldn't be so many worries.

By the time Fan and the others arrived at the former residence of the Four Directions Tribe, this place was already empty of people, but many skeletons were discovered. The ground was exceptionally filthy, retaining traces of the people who had lived here before.

Fan first ordered those Slaves to start cleaning up the hygiene at the location he had chosen. It was sandy soil, so it couldn't be cleaned very thoroughly; they just cleared away the feces and the visible, massive trash. They had symbolically brought some brooms, after all, they would always be needed later; once the Tents were set up, they could use the brooms inside.

After the trash on the ground was cleared, they gathered the nearby bones and the corpses that hadn't completely rotted away to bury them together. For one, it was an eyesore, and for another, it was to prevent unnecessary disease. Although they were basically just bare bones and the chance of an epidemic was very small, or rather almost non-existent, Fan still strictly followed Huaxia's hygiene regulations, and their accompanying team doctor had also advised this.

After the trash was cleared, a portion of the Slaves had already collected a huge amount of firewood and dry Grass. They spread all these things over the planned living area, then set it on fire, using the fire to burn through this area.

After burning, even the ash was clean. This could also kill the venomous insects hiding in the ground. The number of scorpions here in Liuhuangdi was not small; the people of the Chinv Tribe had told them about this long ago.

While burning the land, Fan had already selected a piece of land. It was higher than the position where they were currently burning the fire, by about four or five meters, with a slightly protruding platform; it was a small hillock.

Fan saw that this position was far from the Slaves' living area and could clearly see the activities below. It was not easy for the people below to come up, so it was very suitable for their Huaxia people to live in.

The ground was sandy, and this small hillock was much the same, but the mountain body was relatively solid. It was just that this kind of soil made it hard for plants to survive, so there wasn't a single tree on the hillock, basically just some weeds and shrubs.

Fan climbed onto that protruding small platform and then carried out the planning. He decided to dig away half of this hillock, artificially creating a large flat surface for their Soldiers to live on, and in the remaining half of the mountain, they would dig caves to store food and tools.

The small caves visible everywhere below already proved that the mountain here could be dug into caves. Although one could see some relatively broken caves with some shedding, they were all small pieces of soil, and he hadn't seen any caves that had completely collapsed. The safety could be fully guaranteed; at worst, they could add some wood for reinforcement.

No sooner said than done, he let the Slaves take the iron shovels and directed them to dig small steps on both sides of the planned platform, the kind only wide enough for two people to pass, to facilitate their subsequent transport of supplies and walking.

The excavated soil could be poured directly below the platform and piled up to expand the area of this platform, which could save a lot of effort.

The current Slaves did not know what they were going to do, but they felt that they were still doing the same kind of work as before, so they didn't have any other thoughts. They still worked happily without any complaints. Huaxia didn't treat them badly either; they had food and drink, clothes to wear, and basically had appropriate rest time every day, which was better than being a Free Person in other tribes.

If it weren't for the fact that their current status didn't qualify them, they would have been willing to say they were people of Huaxia. They had heard that one could change from a Slave to an ordinary person, it was just that it took a relatively long time, and there were other ways. Just this policy alone made almost all the Slaves willing to stay in Huaxia and work hard, without thinking of escaping or rebelling.

Fan also knew this point, so he didn't have much wariness toward the current Slaves. Even letting them hold iron shovels was nothing to fear. As for by his side, he only kept a small number of Soldiers to patrol and supervise the surroundings.

As for the majority of the Soldiers, they had already been divided by him to go to the surroundings to familiarize themselves with the situation. They had to ensure that there were no large wild beasts in the vicinity, and another point was to see if the Four Directions Tribe was still staying here. If they were still there, then he would look at their condition.

If their bodies were in relatively good condition, they would all be captured and brought back. It didn't matter if they didn't want to dig for Sulfur; they could wait for the next time Huaxia's Large Ship sent food back and follow it all the way to Huaxia. Perhaps, considering they had worked for Huaxia for so long, they could be given the status of a tenant farmer.

If they were already at the end of their rope, half-dead, then just drive them away. There was no need to kill them; just treat it as defeating them and taking over Liuhuangdi. As for the people of the Four Directions Tribe, just let them fend for themselves.

Under Fan's arrangement, everyone had a clear division of labor. Some Slaves were digging soil, some were setting up Tents. The living area for these Slaves had already been determined. After the fire on the ground went out, they set up the Tents directly on top of this black ash.

The ground had long been trampled very hard by the people who lived there before. Without tools, it was difficult for them to turn the ground over again.