Chapter 496 Consumables

On March 7, 1630, the construction site headquarters was located somewhere inland in Changhua.

"In the eight-month construction period, more than 500 people died in your hard labor camp, an average of two lives every day!" Tao Donglai looked at the accident record list of the Changhua project and couldn't help but sigh: "

If you put your mortality rate on Tian Du's side, I'm afraid all of us executive committee members in charge of industry will be dismissed because of this!"

Qiao Zhiya shook his head slightly and said: "Mr. Tao, the situation is different. You can't simply compare numbers. Tiandu has a strict management system, operating procedures, and medical insurance, but we have nothing here. From Changhua to Shilu

Most of this road is being constructed in the wild, and the most dangerous and tiring work is done by these hard laborers. We don’t have extra medicine and food to ensure their physical condition, so we can only do our best with limited resources.

It may be used on your own people. You can take a look at the casualties of naturalized civilians since the start of the project. So far, there are only a dozen people in total. At least the losses of naturalized civilians are still at an acceptable level."

Tao Donglai asked: "Approximately how many people are currently assigned as hard laborers on the construction site?"

"One thousand, two hundred and eighty-three people." Qiao Zhiya immediately reported an accurate number: "The hard labor camp will count the number of people every day and report it to me. This number is the result of the statistics at the end of last night."

When Tao Donglai was about to speak, a naturalized civilian cadre hurriedly walked in and said: "Report to the chief, there was an accident on the construction site. Two hard laborers were hit by stones. The construction site has been temporarily suspended. Please give instructions to the chief!"

Tao Donglai and Qiao Zhiya looked at each other, and they really did whatever they said. Tao Donglai stood up and said: "Since something happened, let's go over and have a look!"

The place where the accident happened was not too far from the construction site headquarters, more than a mile away and only a few minutes' walk away. When Tao Donglai and Qiao Zhiya arrived at the place of the accident, the place was already separated by a group of militia soldiers.

The person handling the accident at the scene was Anxi, who was temporarily transferred as a technician. When he saw the two people arriving, he just shook his head helplessly and said: "There is no way, two of them were injured, one is completely dead, and the other is also disabled.

.”

The place where the accident happened was a not too high slope. The track line from Changhua to Shilu was going to pass through here, so the construction team dug a gap about six meters wide in the middle of the slope. However, due to the reasons on both sides of the gap,

The slope wall did not have time to undergo further solidification treatment. As a result, a loose stone fell from the top of the slope today. Two hard laborers working on the road below were unlucky. One of them was hit in the middle of the head and died on the spot. The other

One person was hit on the thigh and is still lying on the ground moaning loudly.

Tao Dong came to see the site and had nothing to blame Anxi. Although according to the formal operating procedures, the dangerous factors on the construction site should be eliminated before construction can continue, the executive committee put a very high pressure on the construction period of this road.

Tight, if the standard procedures are followed to deal with the slopes on both sides of the road first, the progress of the entire project may be delayed by three to five days. However, Anxi chose to continue building the road while dealing with the slopes on both sides, which is also

For the sake of construction period.

"Mr. Tao, this must be dealt with quickly, otherwise leaving it here will be a waste of time." Seeing that Tao Donglai did not express his position quickly, Qiao Zhiya reminded him in a low voice.

Tao Dong came to his senses and nodded: "Okay, let's deal with it in your usual way."

Qiao Zhiya immediately ordered: "Come here and carry away the dead and injured. Coach Anxi, send someone to check if there is any looseness on the top of the slope. If there is no problem, resume work as soon as possible!"

Several workers quickly carried away the deceased and the still wailing injured on stretchers. Another worker stepped forward to cover the bloodstains at the accident site with soil. The supervisors shouted at the nearly 100 hard laborers squatting aside to get up quickly and let them go.

They returned to the construction site and started working again.

Tao Donglai did not ask what would be done with the two slave laborers who were carried away. In such a deserted place, they probably could only find a place to dig a hole and bury the dead. As for the man with a broken leg, it was probably even worse.

, the most the medical staff can do is tie a splint to his leg, but for a hard laborer like this who cannot work due to injury, half of the food supply will be deducted. Does this guy have the chance to survive until his bones grow back?

On that day, it just depends on luck.

"Similar things happen one or two times a day." Qiao Zhiya said with a wry smile: "These hard laborers are not professional construction workers, and they don't have much awareness of self-protection on the construction site. Even if the foreman warns them, they can't get up much.

Moreover, many of them were prisoners of war from South Vietnam. They probably couldn’t even understand what we were saying, so we specially recruited a group of naturalized people of Annan origin to serve as foremen here and direct their work.

"

Most of the hard laborers working on this construction site were South Vietnamese prisoners of war sent to Haihan by the Annan court in the name of mortgaging war debts. These southerners neither spoke Chinese nor were of ancestry closer to the Malay people.

It is difficult for people to have a sense of identity and belonging to Haihan, and they do not have much recruitment value for the Executive Committee. Except for a small number of people with sailors, craftsmen and other professional experience who are screened out, most of the prisoners of war are

They were sent directly to hard labor camps to be used as pure labor force.

These people can only get the most basic necessities for survival in the hard labor camps, and there is no clear term of imprisonment. The default is to work until they die. From the executive committee to the grassroots foremen, they are almost regarded as

Consumables. Although Tao Donglai had previously questioned Qiao Zhiya, his starting point was that he regarded these people as property in Haihan's name, and did not care about their lives. If he could exchange profits in a similar way

times the infrastructure construction speed, then the Executive Committee will probably be happy to absorb more of this super-cheap labor force.

Although this approach is not very humane, the time travelers also know very well that they came to this time and space not to do charity, but to conquer the world. The oppression and killing of the weak will inevitably run through the history of Haihan's gradual expansion.

, this is an absolutely unavoidable reality. Even if the number of casualties in the hard labor camp doubled, the executive committee would at most investigate the management omissions and slow down the rate of hard labor loss as much as possible, but it would never question this

The rationality of the approach was because the establishment of the hard labor camp itself was a decision made by the original executive committee.

In the new transaction plan submitted by Tao Donglai to Portuguese representative Thomas a few days ago, Haihan's shopping list suddenly included "labor" as an independent item. At that time, Thomas also asked Tao Donglai about what he needed.

Tao Donglai's answer is very simple - as long as the limbs are sound and capable of working like a normal person. As for the price of a single labor force, further negotiation will be conducted based on the quantity and quality that Portugal can provide.

.

Thomas is not an honest man. He already understood it as soon as he heard Tao Donglai's words - the Haihan people wanted to buy a large number of slaves! This is really the right person. The Portuguese started doing slave trading almost at the time.

Equivalent to the time they opened up trans-oceanic routes on the sea, they are really familiar with this.

As early as 1441, a Portuguese expedition led by Antao Gonsalves captured several black Africans on the coast near Mauritania and brought them back to Lisbon to be sold as slaves. This was probably the earliest Portuguese expedition.

The recorded black slave trade began. In the second half of the 15th century, the Portuguese trafficked a large number of black slaves from West Africa back to China to serve as laborers, and also sold them to Madagascan Islands, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands and other Atlantic islands.

Working in the sugar cane fields.

A century later, the Portuguese slave trade shifted to the Americas. São Tomé Island, located in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa, became the main slave transfer station at that time. Thousands of black slaves were transferred from here to the Americas every year.

It was not until the Portuguese established a new, more convenient transshipment base in the Bay of Luanda in 1576 that São Tomé gradually lost its function.

Naturally, the Portuguese did not forget to bring their traditional business to Asia. However, because they did not occupy large colonies in the Far East, there were not many labor-intensive industries such as plantations. Businessmen

The demand for black slaves was very limited. Although even Thomas was accompanied by black slaves, the Portuguese never realized that they could promote this industry to the Haihan people.

It wasn't until Tao Donglai took the initiative to bring up this matter on behalf of Haihan that Thomas discovered that he had never realized that Haihan's need for labor was so urgent. He only knew that the Haihan people had started another one on the west side of Qiongzhou Island.

The project plan was so huge that almost all of Sanya's engineering and technical personnel and hard labor camp slaves were mobilized. However, judging from Haihan's requirements, it was obvious that the existing labor force could not meet their project needs.

As for finding ways to obtain more cheap labor from other channels - such as buying directly from the Portuguese.

Tao Donglai even hinted to him on the spot that he could consider exchanging weapons for labor. This is definitely a suggestion worthy of serious consideration for Portugal. After all, the cost of catching slaves in Africa is extremely low, and it is definitely better than using real gold and silver.

It is much more cost-effective to buy the weapons of the Haihan people. Then Thomas has sent people to Malacca to deliver a message, entrusting the Goa colony on the Indian peninsula to raise a group of black slaves locally as soon as possible and transport them to Sanya. This is at least faster than catching a group from Africa.

many.

Of course, even if we set out from Goa, it will take about half a year for the first batch of slaves to arrive as soon as the news comes and goes. Therefore, until then, all kinds of dangerous physical labor at various construction sites in Haihan will still have to be carried out.

Relying on the labor force in the hard labor camps. Although the damage rate caused by various accidents is quite high, as Qiao Zhiya said before, at least the casualty rate of naturalized people is controlled at a relatively low level.

This is also one of the indicators that the Executive Committee attaches great importance to.

Within a week after this work-related accident, four more slaves died on various construction sites along the Changhua-Shilu transportation line. One of them died of illness, one was shot dead on the spot by the militia while trying to escape, and the remaining

The two people lost their lives due to serious work-related injuries - they accidentally fell into the water at the construction site of the Changhua River Railway Bridge and were immediately washed away by the river. Their bodies were found on the river beach downstream two days later.

In mid-March, Tao Donglai left Changhua Port and returned to Victory Port. There is still half a month until the third anniversary of the time travel, and this has become one of the main festivals celebrated every year in the area under Haihan's rule. Executive Committee

There will be a lot of preparation work to be arranged in advance, and Tao Donglai must return to his post to take charge of the overall situation.

In addition, the main leaders of various overseas agencies will return to Victory Port during this period to perform their annual work reporting tasks. The main members of the executive committee will basically not go out during this period and will all stay.

Participate in discussions on various plans for the next year in Victory Port.

However, before the anniversary celebrations came, the steam engine operation and maintenance personnel who made the Navy look forward to the stars and the moon were finally in place. The "Majesty" announced the advent of the steam battleship era with a loud whistle one morning - this is more powerful than the world's

The first steam-assisted battleship in the world, the "Napoleon" built by the French in 1849, was more than two centuries ahead of schedule.

When the "Majesty" sailed away from the military port pier with soot rising from its chimney, many people on the civilian pier on the other side looked straight at it - how could this warship still be on the sea when it had clearly not raised its sails?

Sailing? There is also black smoke that is constantly emitting from the ship. Could it be that there is a fire?

As the "Majesty" sailed out of Victory Harbor, Tom Wang always had a faint smile on his face. As one of the main forces promoting the steam battleship plan, Tom Wang enjoyed this hard-won pleasure very much. Another ship

The sister ship "Prestige" of the same class will also officially join the navy within the first half of the year. These two new warships, which represent the highest level of combat power of the militia navy, will be stationed in Victory Port and the newly completed South Port of Hong Kong Island respectively.

And became the flagship of the two fleets in Sanya and Pearl River Estuary waters.

Of course, it is not all good news in terms of shipbuilding. Because the cost of building this new type of warship is too high, the Executive Committee has ordered the suspension of the construction of the third steam-auxiliary power warship - this third ship was originally

It must be allocated to the navy stationed in Annan. However, because the Annan Civil War has been declared over, the Executive Committee believes that it seems a bit wasteful to station such a powerful force permanently in Indochina, and several ports in the south have just begun construction. Even if they are built this year

If they come out, they can only be stationed in the north where war will not break out, and the actual effect they can play is not much.
Chapter completed!