1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 358 Consumables in Engineering
Although the North Vietnam area has been rich in rice since ancient times, there is no shortage of food, but the identity of the prisoners of war doomed them to have no chance to have a full meal. After being captured, they have only been treated with clear soup and wild vegetable porridge.Eating two meals of rice soup a day can basically only serve as a hangman, and many people are already skinny and skinny from hunger.If it weren't for North Vietnam's intention to hand them over to the Haihan people as debts, these people would have starved to death in the prisoner-of-war camps long ago.

This time, the two ships transported from North Vietnam totaled 600 prisoners of war. However, due to their physical weakness during the long-term detention, more than a dozen died during the transportation, and were ruthlessly thrown into the sea by the crew.In the quarantine after arriving in Hong Kong, more than a dozen people were cleared out by the medical team for isolation and observation due to poor physical conditions. In the end, only 560 people were left in the hard labor camp.These people are organized in groups of ten when they are shipped, and ten teams are organized into a squadron. In addition to the management personnel assigned by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the Ministry of Construction, each squadron will also have a slightly older person. Of course, the function of this foreman is not at the administrative level, but is only responsible for specifically guiding them to work.Each camp consists of five squadrons, and just on the construction site of Sanya New City, there are four labor camps with a total of more than [-] people.

According to the plan of the executive committee, in the urban area along the two rivers of Sanya, an inland wharf with a length of several miles will be built along the river bank. Not enough, most of the pure manual labor will be done by the hard labor laborers with a scale of more than 4000 people.Although the bodies of these hard laborers are still very weak, the construction department has no time for them to take care of their bodies slowly. The superiors have pushed the construction period of various projects very tightly, and they cannot complete the expected construction goals on time. Everyone's life will be miserable. better off.The most direct and effective solution is to make full use of these hard labor labor as much as possible, if they can do a little work, at least the cost of these people's debt repayment must be recovered.

"Sleeping you're paralyzed, wake up! You slackers, you don't come to this place for retirement. Gather outside the house immediately. If I count to ten and haven't left the house, I don't need to eat dinner!" Li Maozai took With the tin horn, he yelled loudly at the hard laborers lying on the floor in the shed at the highest volume.As for the meaning of the first sentence, he didn't know, but he once saw Haihan cadres use this sentence to scold the hard laborers who slept late, and felt very imposing, so he started to learn it without authorization.

During the siege of Lijiazhuang in May, Li Maozai was lucky to save his life on the battlefield. He was directly escorted to Dawanshan Island as a coolie.Being able to escape from the predicament of mortal death twice is considered a rare luck.Of course, this is also thanks to the death of the bandit leader Liao Dabi in the rebellion. Otherwise, once the fact that he urged Liao Dabi to attack Lijiazhuang is exposed, even ten lives are not enough to die, and there is no need to expect the Haihan people to need labor. This reason is to save his life.

When Li Maozai was a coolie in Wanshan Port, he continued to display his acting talent, trying to please his boss while squeezing other people who were also hard laborers.I have to say that his tricks have played a certain role. After staying in Wanshan Port for a month, Li Maozai was promoted to the team leader because of his evaluation of "good attitude towards reform, active work and hard work". Later he was promoted to squadron leader.In August, because the main project of Wanshan Port came to an end, and the construction of the remaining fortifications needed to take into account the confidentiality, the people in the hard labor camp were not qualified to participate, so Li Maozai and a group of others fought in Lijiazhuang The captured personnel were transported to the construction site in Sanya Xingang to continue working.

Although Li Maozai tried his best to express himself, it is very difficult for today's hard labor camp to have such an outlier like Gao Qiaonan who successfully counterattacked in a very short period of time.The Ministry of Justice expressly stipulates that, except for a few special talents clearly listed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs who can perform hard labor outside prison, all ordinary personnel in the hard labor camps must be executed according to the sentence sentenced. The sentence cannot be less than two-thirds of the original sentence.All the prisoners of war from North Vietnam received a three-year sentence, which means that even if some of them can get a reduced sentence, their sentence will not be shorter than two years.The hard labor brought over from the mainland received a little bit of preferential treatment, and they all received two years in prison. If Li Maozai could do well enough, he would be free in a little more than a year.

After working as a foreman on the Sanya Xingang construction site for more than a month, Li Maozai was assigned a new task—to take charge of bringing newcomers to Xinying District.This task is not easy to get. Basically, the squadron leaders with better performance in each hard labor camp are transferred to do it, and the labor points they can get are higher than the original positions.

The labor grade and individual labor points system proposed by Ren Liang at the beginning is also implemented in today's hard labor camps, but the points rules and rewards are different from those of ordinary naturalized laborers.The bottom line of labor intensity for hard labor to earn points is much higher than that of naturalized people, and the deductions are more ruthless. As long as you don’t go to work, the original points will be deducted on a daily basis regardless of the reason, instead of just being absent from work like naturalized people. .The greatest use of hard labor points is in exchange for a reduction in the sentence. The points for a week of ordinary hard labor can reduce the sentence of one day. After one year, the points can be used to reduce the sentence by 52 days. This rule is undoubtedly for the hard labor who yearn for freedom. A ray of sunshine in hell can also prompt them to contribute their labor to the maximum.

And the points that Li Maozai can get in his current position are almost double that of ordinary hard labor. He will naturally shorten his sentence by relying on the accumulation of points, and the speed of shortening his sentence will naturally be faster. .

Li Maozai's yelling still had some effect. The hard laborers in the house hurriedly got up and rushed to line up outside the house.However, these people obviously didn't adapt to the habit of lining up at any time under the Haihan system, and they couldn't stand neatly for a long time in a mess.Li Maozai looked impatiently, so he went over and kicked a few people who were not in a good position.In this environment, punching and kicking is the best way of education. Li Maozai also has a deep understanding of this - when he first arrived in Wanshan Port, he was often beaten by the foreman.

"I'll ask you to gather in the future, and immediately stand up for me like this! Anyone who can't stand up will not be given food!" Li Maozai began to lecture loudly to this row of disheveled hard labor: "You guys remember Stay here, you don’t live here for free, you have to work hard for the masters of Haihan! There are no useless people here, if anyone thinks they can’t do it, they can hang themselves with their belts now, so as not to Waste of food!"

"Now take you to work, remember to follow the command in all actions, and you are not allowed to move unless you are asked to move. Anyone who violates the rules... will not be given food!" Li Maozai put down the horn, pointed to the man of the team and said : "Follow me, one behind the other, you are not allowed to go out at will, and call for a report beforehand!"

When he reached the gate of the camp, Li Maozai stopped on purpose, pointed to the right side of the gate of the camp and said, "Did you see the guys hanging over there? They are all people who want to escape. Anyone with such thoughts, It’s best to get rid of the idea now, all those who escaped will break their legs and hang them on that shelf for public display!”

Due to the poor physical condition of these newcomers, they were not suitable for heavy physical labor, so their labor place was arranged near the railway station next to the river port, and their task was to knock the stones needed for the construction of the railway embankment.Although the section of the railway from Sanya Xingang to Tiandu has been fully opened to traffic, there is still a large amount of work to realize the double-track construction plan that the Executive Committee is trying to realize. Moreover, according to the urban planning of Sanya, a railway line will be built from the Inland River Port. The railway along the bank of the Sanya River leads to the northern coastal plain area, so as to provide transportation capacity guarantee for the subsequent large-scale agricultural development in the local area.

Li Maozai brought the newcomers of the squadron to the construction site, and then brought small hammers, each of them gave a handful.After a simple demonstration, the slaves sat on the ground and knocked on the stones.They have to knock stones here for at least four hours today to get the food for the evening meal.

Li Maozai hurriedly ran to the station's arbor and reported to the cadres who came to inspect: "Yu Tou, the work has been arranged."

"Understood, you should keep a close eye on these newcomers. If there are any cunning and sneaky ones, you will be caught directly and sent to the construction site of Pier No. [-]. Naturally, someone will teach them the rules." Yu Dashan sat on the waiting bench and covered himself with a straw hat. Fanning the wind, he responded without haste.

As one of the first batch of naturalized people from Conglong, Yu Dashan has been consciously established as a representative of naturalized people cadres by relevant departments because of his good performance all the time.When the anniversary was celebrated half a year ago, Yu Dashan had already been promoted from the foreman of the Shengli Port Freight Terminal to the assistant director of the Port Area Management Committee, and was responsible for assisting Ren Liang in handling immigration matters.Soon after the Sanya Xingang project started, Yu Dashan was transferred to the Xingang side and resumed his old job as a foreman.However, this foreman is no longer the original foreman. Yu Dashan does not manage specific affairs now, but is responsible for the coordination between the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Construction in the Xingang project. The main target of his work is the hard labor camp.The four hard labor camps are all within Dashan's purview, so in the eyes of a grassroots foreman like Li Maozai, Yu Dashan can already be regarded as a very high-level figure.

"Pier No. [-]?" Li Maozai's face changed slightly after hearing this.

Pier No. [-] is one of the inland wharves currently under construction. According to the current construction methods, the renovation of the river bank and the construction of trestle bridges require a large number of laborers to go into the water to cooperate with the construction. Naturally, this kind of hard work is handed over by the Ministry of Construction. The labor camp with the lowest operating cost was established.This job requires continuous soaking in water for several hours a day, which not only consumes a lot of energy, but also causes certain harm to the body. There are even cases where the lower body is soaked until it rots. Therefore, it has always been used as a means of punishment. thorns to do the job.

"The chiefs have said that before the end of the year, the main project of the Sanya Inland River Port must be completed. If you want to rush the work, you have to fill it with people." Yu Dashan raised his finger and pointed to the hard labor sitting in the open air knocking stones: "Everyone should be very clear about the attitude of the chiefs towards these South Vietnamese prisoners of war. Is there anything else you don't understand?"

"I understand, I understand, the villain fully understands." Li Maozai quickly responded: "The villain will definitely watch them closely, and if there are those who are disobedient, the villain will do what he wants."

Li Maozai also stayed on the construction site in Xingang, Sanya for a while, and he naturally saw that the South Vietnamese prisoners of war were treated differently from other people in the hard labor camp.In addition to the South Vietnamese prisoners of war in the current hard labor camp, there are also prisoners from Yacheng, naturalized people who committed crimes, and a few prisoners from the mainland like Li Maozai.Among these personnel, the treatment of South Vietnamese prisoners of war is undoubtedly the lowest.These people are basically used as consumables. Almost all of the hardest and most tiring jobs are South Vietnamese. The work-related injuries and overwork deaths that occurred during this process are also the number of South Vietnamese. most.

The main reason for this situation is that the attitude of the Executive Committee played a certain role.These South Vietnamese are different from North Vietnamese in terms of race, language, and living habits. It takes relatively more resources to transform these people, and there are a large number of North Vietnamese naturalized people in the local area. The feud formed by years of civil war It is difficult to resolve it easily. Even if these South Vietnamese can complete the transformation, it is still difficult to integrate into the local life.Therefore, although the executive committee didn't say anything, in actual operation, the South Vietnamese hard labor was regarded as a consumable, and it worked from top to bottom. After reaching the grassroots level, this situation was naturally more serious.Although under strict supervision, there is no such thing as deliberate torture of prisoners, but there is no doubt that all management personnel have no sympathy for these South Vietnamese hard laborers.

In other words, the best period of time for these South Vietnamese hard laborers to live in Hong Kong is the present. When they adapt to the local environment a little bit and their physical condition recovers, they will no longer be sitting on the ground and knocking stones. Easy" work was done for them.There will definitely be people who can resist until the end of their sentence and regain their freedom, but this number must account for an astonishingly small proportion of the total number of hard labor in South Vietnam.

The current situation of the Crossing Group is that the speed of construction and development cannot keep up with the needs of development, and even caused serious delays in various plans to a certain extent.However, infrastructure projects require a lot of manpower. In order to achieve faster outward expansion, the Executive Committee had to put forward almost strict requirements for the duration of various projects.If it weren't for the large amount of free hard labor available now, it would be difficult for the Ministry of Construction to rely on its own strength to fulfill the requirements of the Executive Committee.The executive committee members are all aware of the large loss of personnel that will definitely occur in this process, but no one will publicly raise it.Even Gu Kai, who likes to defend human rights the most, is very smart to keep his mouth shut and act as a spectator at this time-Gu Kai knows very well which side to choose between political correctness and human rights protection.

This harsh oppression of hard labor is not a big problem in the eyes of the local people.Whether these people are criminals or war criminals, it is considered a kindness for them not to be hanged by the chiefs of Haihan. Isn’t it reasonable to feed them with food and let them work?As for the fact that the labor intensity is too high and the treatment is too poor, this is not a matter of debate - if everyone is treated equally well, then who would try to find a place of origin for himself and his family as a naturalized citizen?
With the expansion of the time-traveling group's strength, the benefits of naturalization are also increasing. Now it is not just the treatment of food and clothing, but the corresponding social treatment of education, medical care and housing is also gradually improving.

Ordinary naturalized families can send their children to local schools. As long as they have a naturalized place of origin, all tuition fees will be waived. Adults can also sign up for various forms of literacy classes, evening schools, and skills training classes for free. Education and training institutions.Since the requirement of literacy rate is now added to the labor rank promotion conditions of the naturalized people, the enthusiasm of the naturalized people to actively participate in various literacy classes is much higher than last year.

The down-and-out literati recruited by the Ministry of Civil Affairs through various channels also played a big role in this field. Although their ability to recite poems and write stereotyped essays is of no use in Shengli Port, even if they only teach people how to read and write, Income has also been much better than before.Although there are no four books and five classics in the various textbooks issued by the Haihan people, they are all self-edited content, which seems a bit deviant, but after living in Shengli Port for a period of time and fully enjoying the Haihan-style sugar-coated cannonballs, the down-and-out literati It is difficult to stick to ideals, and one after another chose to stay here as a teacher or a clerical job.

In terms of medical care, in addition to the continuous training of barefoot doctors by relevant units, there are various other supporting management systems to keep the local medical and health conditions at a high level.The quarantine system for immigrants, the popularization of various local basic sanitation facilities, and strict regulations on garbage dumping and excrement disposal have all played a great role in promoting.The only ones who were dissatisfied with this were probably the two foreign doctors, because their workload was too heavy. They saw a doctor in the morning and taught in the afternoon, and they almost lost their free time.Especially the old Morgan, who was deeply dissatisfied with the recent missed opportunities to participate in military operations due to medical work arrangements, and even planned to submit a report to transfer his staff from the medical department to the Military Commission-of course, even if he typed this report It is impossible to pass. After all, he is the only cardiovascular disease expert in the entire time-traveling group. In a few years, everyone may have to rely on his medical skills to protect their bodies. How could they tolerate him being so unprofessional.

(End of this chapter)