Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 895

With the driving of the first foundation pile, the construction of the energy tower officially began.

The steam hammer made a rhythmic roar, and the ten-meter-long steel piles slowly sank into the permafrost under the impact of the heavy hammer. Every impact made the ground tremble slightly, and the snow slid down from the roof of the nearby shed.

The workers, wrapped in thick cotton-padded clothes, were busy in the cold wind. The white breath they exhaled formed fine ice crystals on their eyebrows and beards. Their fingers were frozen red, but they were still working hard.

Although most of the residents of the City of Seven Hills lack professional construction experience, everyone is fully focused on completing the task at hand.

The red-haired boy who used to knead dough in the bakery was now carefully adjusting the bubble of the spirit level, his tightly pursed lips twitching slightly with every shift of the bubble.

The fishmonger who used to have the loudest voice in the market is now meticulously installing steel components according to the markings. Veins bulge on his sturdy arms, as if he is pouring all his life's strength into every bolt.

Whenever a Northern technician demonstrated a new construction process, workers would always rush forward to follow suit.

There was a tall and thin young man who squeezed in so quickly that his safety helmet was tilted to his ears; several women simply lifted up their aprons to use as notebooks, and drew crooked symbols on them with charcoal sticks.

Someone mistakenly welded a galvanized pipe as ordinary steel. The dazzling arc light scared him so much that he staggered back, leaving messy footprints on the snow.

When several women in charge of mixing concrete operated the machine for the first time, they were nearly knocked down by the suddenly rotating drum. Their screams were met with good-natured laughter.

But these little episodes actually made the learning atmosphere more intense. During lunch time, workers could often be seen gathering in makeshift sheds, having heated discussions around the simple drawings that the Northern masters had drawn on the frozen soil with a dagger, and rubbing their frozen fingers repeatedly on the marks.

Although the progress of the project was nearly half slower than the original plan - the base platform that should have been completed in three days took a full week - but with everyone's concerted efforts, the outline of the energy tower has begun to slowly rise on the ice field.

The steel structure skeleton gradually stretches out, like a seedling made of steel, growing tenaciously in the frozen soil.

Whenever the sun sets, the shadow of the tower covers half of the camp like a giant, casting a silhouette of hope for the working people.

Growing together with this giant steel tower is the community of survivors spreading across the ruins of the City of Seven Hills.

Newly built prefabricated houses spread around the energy tower like colonies, and smoke rose from the crooked chimneys.

The children chased and played among the piles of building materials, and for the first time their laughter drowned out the howling of the cold wind.

When the last batch of refugees was properly resettled, Perfect stood in front of the foundation of the energy tower and called together missionaries, engineers and representatives of various refugee groups.

Her voice was particularly clear in the cold wind, accompanied by the roar of the steam boiler in the distance: "The era of temporary shelter is over. We will build a new city that can withstand eternal winter with the energy tower as the core!
Not a collection of tents and tin shacks, but a real city with streets, houses and heating. "

Behind her, the steel frame of the energy tower glowed with a cold metallic luster in the twilight, like a monument to the future taking shape.

The news spread through the camp like a stream of hot water from a steam valve.

The women stopped mending the canvas, the workers paused their work, and even the stoker who was adding coal to the steam boiler straightened up - a long-lost glow appeared on everyone's face.

After all, it means brick fireplaces, walls lined with brass pipes, and no more worries about the roof blowing off in the middle of the night by a snowstorm.

A white-haired old man suddenly knelt down in the snow, digging his trembling fingers deep into the snow, as if to personally confirm the authenticity of this promise. At dawn the next day, before the canteen opened for dinner, the crowd gathered at the Planning Office.

A surveyor wrapped in a linoleum cloak spread out a blueprint on the snow, the needle of a brass compass trembling slightly beside him.

The old craftsmen of the Carpenters' Guild pointed at the central heating pipes on the drawings and argued endlessly, their rough knuckles leaving sweat stains on the drawings.

Several women who used to be textile factory workers were indicating the location of the community canteen with their red, frozen fingers. Their argument could be heard clearly even from dozens of meters away.

Even the children dragged the scrap copper and iron they had collected, saying that they would use them as building materials for the new city.

The steam crane whistles sound all day long, and the thumping of the steam hammers is like some strange metallic heartbeat.

Everyone is working hard for the construction of the new city. It seems that every bit of hard work they put in now will bring the new city's completion sooner.

When night falls, the unfinished energy tower skeleton casts spider-web-like shadows under the searchlights, and in those shadows, the outlines of future streets can already be seen.

Perfect stood on the command platform of the energy tower, looking down at the construction scene in full swing below, with a rare smile on his face.

Although the project progress was much behind the original plan - the foundation pouring was delayed due to the obstruction of permafrost, the steel structure assembly had to be frequently redone due to the workers' unfamiliar skills, and the transportation of materials was often interrupted by snowstorms, but these difficulties were all within her expectations.

What really comforted her was that even in such difficult circumstances, the survivors still maintained an amazing enthusiasm for construction.

From dawn to dusk, the construction site was always filled with the sounds of banging and shouting.

Elderly people were trembling as they pushed carts filled with building materials, women were passing bricks while looking after their children, and even the wounded were trying to do what they could.

What is even more rare is that when food rations were constantly reduced, no one proposed the short-sighted idea of ​​"eating first and then building".

This atmosphere of unity created excellent conditions for Perfect to promote the new god's faith.

The missionaries preached at every opportunity: preaching doctrine during breaks at the work site, recounting miracles while distributing food, and leading the crowds in prayer as night fell.

The survivors were also more receptive to and accepting of the New God's beliefs than before. They even spontaneously prioritized the construction of a magnificent New God Cathedral - the towering spires pointed straight to the sky, the bronze bells echoed in the wind and snow, and the stained glass sparkled under the aurora.

This is the first building completed in the new city, even earlier than the energy tower and other buildings.

This undoubtedly shows that the belief in the new god has gradually been accepted by the survivors of the City of Seven Hills, and they are becoming believers of the new god.

When Perfect felt the surging power of faith gathering from the church, she realized that the concentration of faith here had surpassed that of the Desert Kingdom.

This cathedral, rising from the ground in the severe cold, is becoming the most dazzling spiritual beacon of the new god faith.

(End of this chapter)