Lu Ming

Chapter 320 Water Conservancy
In terms of recognition alone, Liang Letian and Mi Shuo, the two traversers, are probably the most familiar people to immigrants.

Because most people from the Ming Dynasty are illiterate + farmers, these people are often kicked to work in agriculture or infrastructure industries at the beginning, so they can often see the two in the fields.

So when the electric tricycle drove over from a distance, there was a message on the busy construction site: "The blue-headed mule is coming!"

Soon, the foreman who got the news ran out of the simple work shed.

The foreman's surname is Zhang, in his forties, he is a rare craftsman in the Ming Dynasty who knows mathematics, so he became a foreman soon after he came to Dayuan. He usually takes junior high school geometry as a tutor.

This position is already regarded as a middle-level cadre of the Construction Corporation, so he must know Liang Letian and Mi Shuo.Seeing the two bosses getting off the blue-headed iron mule, Foreman Zhang hastily stepped forward to say hello: "Master Liang, Mr. Mi, you two are here! Please, please."

After Liang Letian snorted, he looked ahead and asked, "Is the boss there?"

At the bottom of the vast green hills, several mirror-like lakes are dotted between the sky and the earth.A large number of construction workers are busy on the depressions between the lakes, and the chug of gas forklifts are the main force for transforming nature. Every time a shovel is shoveled, a rickshaw will be filled with soil.

Looking at the busy scene in front of him, Liang Letian couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "The reservoir is really troublesome!"

The Tainan Plain is rich in water, and there are many permanent and seasonal puddles and lakes, especially in the hilly areas near the mountains, where wetlands, swamps and lakes are everywhere.

This highlights the importance of water conservancy: If you want to turn the plain into a granary, you must do a good job in water conservancy projects.

There are several large and small reservoirs in Chiayi in later generations.The most important of these is the Wutou Mountain Reservoir series of projects designed and built by Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta in 7.

Wutoushan Reservoir is located in the Chiayi area in the north of Dayuan, in the remaining veins of the Central Mountain Range. It was the largest irrigation project in Asia at that time, and it took 7 years to complete.

The core building of this project is the "Chiayi Dam".After the completion of the entire embankment, it is 1273 meters long, 56 meters high, and has a water storage capacity of 5000 million tons.

During the construction, Hatta Yoichi not only mobilized a large number of workers, but also used a series of advanced construction machinery at that time, such as steam shovels, pressure water sprayers, and gravel transport vehicles.

After the completion of the reservoir, 15 hectares (220 million mu) of fields downstream will be turned into drought and flood protection. And this reservoir is also the ultimate project in Tainan that people will never forget.

In fact, from the moment the big office was established, those in power who knew that the people depended on food for the first time took a copy of Google Maps of Tainan and threw it to the construction department: "Go and investigate the conditions of these reservoirs."

The results were quickly fed back: except for a few small reservoirs, other large-scale projects like the Wutoushan Reservoir cannot be built without five years of industrial development.

This conclusion is scientific: medium and large reservoirs need to excavate a huge amount of earth and stone, as well as a huge amount of concrete, steel bars, construction machinery, and construction workers.The poor production capacity of the kiln industrial park at that time could not meet the requirements at all.

So this matter was put on hold for the time being. After all, everyone had only come here not long ago, and the kiln area hadn’t even built a cement kiln. Let alone a large reservoir, even a small reservoir was beyond its capabilities.

However, more than a year later, when the time came to July of 1628, the violent torrents and heavy rain immediately gave people from the 7st century a taste of the wildness of the 21th century.

Then it was a painful experience. After the rainy season, the big office quickly, immediately, and a little nervously ordered the construction head office to start building the reservoir.

Again, the reservoir is not so easy to repair.

The Construction Headquarters, who had accidentally received a lot of jobs, could only tell the bosses on the stage with trepidation after assessing the existing engineering and technical capabilities with a sad face: at present, we can only widen the channels and rivers, and then Then choose an opportunity to repair one or two small reservoirs to practice.

So the "1628 Tainan Comprehensive Water Conservancy Project" was launched in such a hurry.

Tired Liang Letian and the others ran dozens of kilometers today to inspect the core project of this water conservancy project: Mirror Reservoir.

Jingmian Reservoir was a small reservoir in later generations, and its water source mainly came from Zengwen River and Cailiao River.Of the seven reservoirs, the mirror is the smallest.

The original site of the Mirror Reservoir in the 17th century was composed of a series of wetlands, woods, and lakes in the hilly area.After exploration, the construction company found that the construction conditions here could barely meet the requirements, so they decided to clear and dig these lakes, connect them together, and finally build a dam to finish the job.

What Liang Letian saw now was the construction team digging deep among several small lakes.

A large force of nearly 2000 people formed more than ten groups, and each group was working around a construction machine.

Some of these groups followed the logging machine to cut down forests, and some followed the excavating machine to empty the lake and build temporary dams. Most of them were pushing small carts and waiting around the forklift to remove the earthwork.

A large number of people and machines are scattered among the mountains and rivers, like swarms of black ants - a gas engineering vehicle that uses fresh wood felled on the spot as raw materials emits thick black smoke.

After standing on the embankment and looking at the construction site for a while, Liang Letian and Mi Shuo turned and walked towards the headquarters.

The headquarters is a few wooden houses built with logs. There is a camphor wood sign with white stubble exposed and fragrant fragrance hanging on the door. The words "Mirror Reservoir Project Headquarters" are written in crooked ink characters.

Glancing at the casserole with gurgling meat on a small clay stove at the door, Liang Letian and Mi Shuo looked at each other, then burst into the command post with a loud laugh.

The conditions in the house are very simple: there is no electricity in this damn place, and there is no diesel generator necessary for future construction sites.The tables, chairs and benches are all newly made of camphor wood from local materials. The workmanship is rough, the smell of camphor is constantly exuding, and the top is covered with bark.

This type of disposable furniture is popular on construction sites: unseasoned wood can warp over time.But at that time, the project just happened to be completed, and together with the headquarters, they were all thrown into the gas stove as fuel.

After entering the door, Liang Letian immediately saw the confused person lying on the chair, so he yelled: "Hey! You dare to eat casserole stew, the Safety Supervision Bureau is here!"

The fear rooted in his bones caused the person in the chair to quickly turn over and sit up.

Ma Ming, a former contractor, is currently the vice president of the construction company and the person in charge of the Mirror Reservoir project.

When the stubble-faced Ma Ming woke up, he immediately scolded Liang Letian who was laughing, "So it's you!".

"It's me, Captain Ma." After Liang Letian made a joke, he sat down and asked the real thing directly: "How is the progress of the project?"

"Cut, it's early. Didn't you see when you came here? The pit hasn't been dug yet." After Ma Ming finished speaking, he stretched and half-lyed on the chair again: "I said Master Cifu, you can go if you want. Turn around, I have to sleep again, last night two idiots chased a deer into the wetlands, tossing me half the night."

"Come on, let's talk again, the meat in the casserole will belong to me and Mi Shuo after you sleep?" Liang Letian threatened, while taking out the big nine and handing it over.

"Oh, I know it's not a good thing for you to come!" Ma Ming didn't sleep after lighting a cigarette.

"Since the pit is still being dug, when will the dam be closed?" Mi Shuo, who was sitting beside him, asked the question he was most concerned about.

"It will take half a year anyway." Ma Ming took a puff of cigarettes and hid his face, looking very mysterious: "We are half artificial and half mechanical, and the efficiency is astonishingly slow."

"In this case, what will happen in the rainy season next year?" Mi Shuo was a little worried when he heard the words.

"There is no problem in the rainy season. It is now December, and the project will definitely be completed by July next year."

"However." Ma Ming draws the tone here: "I advise you not to pin your hopes here."

"The area of ​​this reservoir is not large, and it can't play much role in flood control at all. At best, it just releases water in advance and then intercepts a few flood peaks."

When Ma Ming said this, he straightened up, stretched out his arms and drew a big circle to the north: "In the era when we came, there were seven large and small reservoirs near Chiayi alone, not counting the ones near Kaohsiung. You count on this one, that is Fingering the fart and blowing the lamp."

"We are mentally prepared for this." Liang Letian nodded with a sullen expression: "It seems that we still need to vigorously strengthen the irrigation system."

"That's right, relying on no one is worse than relying on yourself." Ma Ming smiled and lay back on the chair again.

"What about the big reservoir? When will construction start?" Mi Shuo asked again without giving up.

"I don't know." Ma Ming shook his head like a rattle: "Our technical conditions are actually the same as those of the Japanese back then. There is not much difference between a steam excavator and a gas excavator."

"However, the Japanese's ability to mobilize resources is much stronger than ours now, and our current foundation is too thin." Ma Ming said here, snapping his fingers: "Huge amounts of concrete, steel bars, boulders, equipment kilometers long The dam is nothing in later generations, but now it’s nothing to get on a horse. If you calculate the earthwork, you will know that there is no way to provide raw materials.”

"Then we can only build these small reservoirs?"

"Yes!" Ma Ming did not hesitate at all: "Build a series of small reservoirs within three years, wait for the construction team to be trained, and then look at the supply of machinery and raw materials. If there is enough, we will build it. If it is not enough, we will have to wait. "

"Oh, that's the only way to go." After Liang Letian and Mi Shuo looked at each other, they both saw helplessness in each other's eyes.

"In this case, there is nothing to do today. Let's leave after dinner." Liang Letian saw that it was just noon, so he directed the contractor who was smiling apologetically to bring in the casserole outside the door. Grab some more beer.

"It's over, I feel that today is not a good day." Ma Ming will be filled with grief and indignation: "Serow meat, I have stewed it all morning!"

(End of this chapter)