From Robinson Crusoe

Workers commuting to work by bicycle swarmed like locusts, growing from a few to a dozen or even dozens of people in just a few months.

Their bicycles were very rudimentary, without any shock absorption, and the wooden wheels made the ride extremely bumpy, causing their buttocks to ache after a short while.

But no matter what, it's a symbol of status, and even if you suffer a little, it's worth it as long as you can enjoy the envious glances of others.

……

The development of the bicycle industry created the first batch of "nouveau riche" on the island. Carpenters of all skill levels, whether highly skilled or mediocre, received orders to manufacture bicycles.

Sugar cubes poured into the pockets of these people as the number of bicycles increased.

Moreover, some far-sighted individuals have even learned, without being taught, how to charge "after-sales service fees"—

Although they didn't know what after-sales service was, they did know that bicycles would break down and would inevitably need frequent repairs.

Compared to one-off sales, bicycle repair and maintenance may earn less, but it is a long-term business.

Whether it's replacing parts, maintaining wheels, or even customizing unique decorations for the vehicle, these are all new projects developed by the islanders themselves.

As car owners, most people working in shipyards wouldn't be stingy with a piece or two of brown sugar. To make themselves look good and to attract the attention of female workers, they were willing to do so.

……

After a dry season, another rainy season arrives.

The shipyard's shelters, built to protect against wind and rain, stand by the sea, enduring storms and successfully withstanding several torrential downpours.

A "parking lot" specifically for bicycles appeared on the dock, and after a few months, the number of people owning bicycles has increased significantly.

In addition to the shipyard workers, the guards were also equipped with bicycles to increase their patrol speed.

Several carpenters who had not yet moved into their detached houses brought their tools to the vicinity of the shipyard and waited on the way home from get off work to solve minor problems for car owners, such as repairing wheels and replacing axles.

Those with good craftsmanship can naturally earn brown sugar, and with the brown sugar blocks, they can then exchange them for other supplies, thus facilitating the circulation of resources on the island.

When Chen Zhou listened to the report, he could sense from the changes on the island what kind of vibrant vitality the island's power now possessed.

However, using brown sugar as currency is not a long-term solution. To ensure the stable development of the island's economy, it would be best to implement a genuine metal currency.

The area of ​​sugarcane fields on the island is expanding year by year, and the amount of brown sugar produced will gradually increase in the future. If brown sugar is used as currency for barter, inflation will occur before long.

……

Chen Zhou had long harbored the idea of ​​implementing a monetary system, and he even tried melting metal to cast a batch of round coins.

However, considering the insufficient population on the island, there was no need to set up a separate mint, and the quantity and variety of metals used for minting coins were insufficient, he never officially implemented it.

During the late dry season and early rainy season of 1665, he devoted most of his energy to the study of naval guns, except for helping shipyard workers assemble steam power systems.

……

In 17th-century naval warfare, apart from the sturdiness of the ship, its speed, and the sailors' fighting spirit, the most decisive factor was still artillery.

When unloading supplies from the wrecked ship, Chen Zhou observed the artillery of that period.

Overall, the artillery structure of the 17th century was still in a very primitive stage.

At this time, the shells were mainly solid shot, and the way they attacked enemy ships was through kinetic energy destruction. They were extremely effective against wooden sailing ships of the same period. In the course of battle, a single salvo from the sides of a large ship was enough to destroy the hull of an enemy ship.

However, at this time, the accuracy and rate of fire of the naval guns were significantly insufficient. The loading process of the muzzle-loading smoothbore gun was complicated, just like that of a matchlock gun, which severely limited the rate of fire.

Moreover, due to the excessive weight of the shells, the rate of fire of artillery was far inferior to that of matchlock muskets.

As for accuracy, it depends entirely on the gunner's experience. Naval operations are inherently turbulent, and artillery itself has significant shortcomings, so expecting to directly destroy enemy ships with artillery fire is obviously unrealistic.

If you encounter a large ship, even dozens of shots might not be enough to sink it. At most, it could cause the ship to leak or its structure to collapse, which obviously depends on luck.

While studying 17th-century naval artillery, Chen Zhou also recalled several other types of cannonballs that were widely used in naval warfare at that time.

For example, pre-loaded with metal fragments and nails, these shells are insufficient to damage the hull and have a short range; they are mainly used to engage enemy sailors. When two ships close in distance, a few shots can cover the entire deck, quickly eliminating enemy personnel and thus initiating boarding action, creating favorable conditions for one's own sailors.

Another example is the "Anti-Mast Noble Phantasm" Chain Shot, which consists of two hemispherical projectiles connected by an iron chain. After being launched, they spin in the air, damaging the masts of enemy ships or getting entangled in their rigging, rendering them immobile.

Another type of shell that can also disrupt the maneuverability of enemy ships is called a rod shell or scissor shell, which works on a similar principle to chain shells.

As far as Chen Zhou knew, relatively reliable explosive shells appeared around the 18th century. Explosive shells in the 17th century were still in the experimental stage, and their fuses were not reliable enough and were prone to barrel explosions, so they were not used on naval guns.

Using contemporary Spanish armed merchant ships or British and Dutch vessels as hypothetical enemies would significantly reduce the pressure on improving artillery.

You don't need sophisticated weapons to "fight primitive people".

Putting aside other factors, the power system of steam-powered sailing ships alone could greatly reduce the effectiveness of chain shot.

When the enemy's chain shot successfully destroys the mast and they prepare to slaughter this strange, large ship like fish on a chopping board, they will be astonished to find that the ship can still move.

Moreover, the use of steam power can further enhance the sturdiness of the hull. When designing this new ship, Chen Zhou had already thickened the side hull to withstand artillery attacks.

Once the reinforcement is completed, if the distance is not close enough, even if contemporary naval guns successfully hit the ship, they may not be able to penetrate the hull, thus providing time for a more powerful counterattack.

……

A ship's defensive capabilities are linked to its fault tolerance, but its offensive capabilities truly determine its threat level.

Chen Zhou initially wanted to use World War I-era naval guns as a template to equip his "iron-boned giant ship" with top-of-the-line weapons that surpassed the entire era.

However, the island's industrial capacity was not advanced enough. Without the key components provided by the mysterious reward, manufacturing advanced naval cannons would be a pipe dream, much more difficult than improving firearms.

The production of artillery shells alone requires advanced metallurgy, raw material cutting, heating and forging, stamping and stretching, and even sandblasting technologies.

There are also technologies that are currently impossible to achieve, such as heat treatment, surface treatment, precision machining, and internal polishing.

Most importantly, the island did not have enough reserves of TNT or nitroglycerin-based explosives needed to manufacture shells. In order to set up an explosives production line, Chen Zhou led a team to go out on several occasions to search for raw materials on the island.

Unfortunately, this is just an island, which is incomparable to the resource-rich mainland. Building an artillery production line on the island is simply unrealistic.

Unless he can actually open new sea routes, establish trade relations with the maritime powers of the 17th century, and import goods...

……

The development of advanced artillery is still underway. However, for the islanders, steam-powered ships, artillery, and maritime trade are all distant and unfamiliar concepts; their attention is focused on their own lives.

Especially after the rainy season begins, both new islanders and long-time residents who have lived on the island for more than two years start preparing for the festival.

Driven by Chen Zhou and others, such as Sunday and Saturday, the three festivals each year became increasingly grand and gradually gave rise to the concept of "holidays".

1665年8月1日，首领生日过去不久，9月30日即将到来。

Although the festival has not yet begun, the island is already filled with a lively atmosphere.

……

It is still the rainy season, and fishing boats dare to linger in the nearshore waters when it is drizzling and the sea is calm. At present, they use fishing nets woven by rattan weavers, and they only dive to fish when preparing food for the chief.

Fishing nets can catch schools of fish, but they are not very effective at catching sea cucumbers, lobsters, crabs and other marine life on the bottom of the water. If you want to eat particularly fresh and special food, you always have to take risks and make efforts.

However, as the number of natives on the island increased, Chen Zhou tasted more and more seafood, and recently he has become somewhat tired of the taste of seafood.

In addition, with the arrival of the rainy season and the turbulent waters, the risk of death during diving increased, so he ordered a ban on dangerous diving activities, planning to reopen them during the dry season.

However, diving and fishing activities are difficult to regulate strictly, and seafood such as lobsters, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins are very popular on the island as delicacies "favored by the chief".

Like other things associated with the leader, the price of these seafood products skyrocketed after they were served on Chen Zhou's table.

Everyone on the island who considers themselves to be of high status and position tries every means to get seafood such as lobsters onto their tables, especially when a festival is approaching.

In addition to the sacrificial rites and beach banquets in which everyone participates, on the evening of the festival, the "upper class" living below the factory will also hold a family banquet to entertain close friends and artisans of high status, so as to enhance their relationships.

The food served during such a grand festival cannot be the same as usual. Rare ingredients are already expensive, and their prices will skyrocket before and after the festival.

The veterans are well-off and naturally don't care about this expense.

The newly arrived islanders lived in poverty; some didn't even have a proper set of clothes.

Chen Zhou had already distributed all the clothes he had taken off the ship. Now that the island's population had exceeded one hundred, he simply didn't have enough clothes for the islanders to consume.

Although the factory floor was already producing cashmere fabric, the meager output was barely enough to supply the veteran workers, let alone the newcomers to the island.

Currently, most of the clothing worn by the new islanders is made of sheepskin or rabbit skin. Wearing such clothes on the hot island is extremely stuffy and not aesthetically pleasing.

……

As the saying goes, people are divided into different classes.

In the past, everyone lived naked in the tribe, and the natives did not care whether they had clothes or not.

After arriving on the island, they went to school, learned Chinese, and gradually developed an understanding of shame. Under the guidance of the older islanders, the new islanders also gradually learned about interpersonal relationships and social etiquette, and slowly began to cherish their reputation.

The residents on the island have distinct social statuses.

Those who live the best lives live next to the leader, have detached houses with kitchens and toilets, decent jobs, and can pursue their hobbies or have a meal or play chess with friends after work.

They wore sailor suits, and some even wore simpler, more presentable work clothes.

They wore underwear under their outer clothes, and their shoes had uppers and soles, making them look very proper.

People who are not doing so well may not own a detached house, but they still dress appropriately. Even if their shoes are made of wood, it does not affect their confident demeanor when they communicate with others.

The worst group is the latest batch of people who were caught and brought to the island.

In order to adapt to the new environment, integrate into the new life, and also to make themselves seem less "different", they are willing to take risks.

Those who learn farming in the fields have no opportunity.

Islanders who go out to sea to fish risk their lives to catch seafood during the rainy season in exchange for sugar, which they can then use to buy themselves a pair of shoes, a nicer piece of clothing, or, if they're feeling bolder, a bicycle.

……

In order to allocate manpower more rationally, Chen Lu conducted a survey and statistics on the jobs that the natives were good at when he first arrived on the island.

The islanders who participate in the fishing work are all excellent swimmers and are recognized as fishermen even in the archipelago. They have long diving time, quick and accurate strikes, and excellent fishing techniques.

If they go to sea during the dry season, they will hardly bear any risk.

However, diving during the rainy season can sometimes present risks that are beyond human control.

As the saying goes, "If you walk the night road too much, you'll eventually see a ghost." The illegal fishing activities didn't last long before a tragic accident occurred on the island—

Three new islanders, all excellent swimmers, went missing after diving and fishing.

About a day after they went missing, their bodies were found on the other side of the beach, and the investigation showed that all three had drowned.

The experienced man who led the three out to sea tried his best to conceal the whole story, only saying that the three accidentally fell into the sea during the fishing process, and that the wind and waves made it impossible to rescue them, which led to the accident.

However, there were too many contradictions in his statement, and the guards in charge of investigating the matter did not believe his testimony at all, and took him directly to the interrogation room.

Faced with various instruments of torture and unable to withstand the pressure, this veteran, who had profited greatly from "illegal fishing," quickly poured out his heart, recounting the cause and course of events.

……

"The wages of avarice is death."

"Once you're no longer worried about having enough to eat, there are always other things you want, like clothes, food, or a house..."

In the office on the second floor of the factory, under the light, Chen Zhou looked at the submitted investigation report and couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

For just a few pieces of brown sugar, they were willing to risk their lives to defy the ban and go fishing at sea. It seems that all people in the world are the same and cannot escape the vicious cycle of human nature.

Since the island's power gradually took shape, this is the first time such a major incident has occurred.

The deaths of three new islanders cast a somber shadow over the holiday, and the wording of the "no-diving order" became even harsher.

Alongside the new "diving ban," a major investigation into the private trade of rare seafood products was also launched, uncovering many long-time offenders with prior convictions.

The punishments for them mainly consisted of fines. Even though the veterans were "quite wealthy," this round of fines severely damaged their finances, and they were unable to regain their former extravagant spending habits in the short term. (End of Chapter)