The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 313 Diwozi

A working meeting regarding the impending arrival of immigrants was held at the General's Mansion after Zhao Ran and others left.

Those present included officers of the rank of chiliarch or above from various garrisons.

General Xiong was covered in sweat.
"At most within half a month, more than 300,000 immigrants will arrive in Kansai. How do we solve the housing problem for these immigrants?"

The garrison troops have been stationed at the garrison for more than two months, and the accommodation problem has not yet been fully resolved.

The more than 300,000 people who came were distributed among the seven garrisons, with each garrison receiving more than 50,000 people.

How many families are there?
How many more houses will be needed!

General Xiong is under a lot of pressure and has been suffering from severe insomnia for the past few days.

"I heard from the locals that it snows in the Kansai region as early as October, and it will snow for three or four months! It's already the end of August in the lunar calendar, and we only have one month at most to build houses for them."

Time is too tight.

Snow freezes the ground, and nobody builds houses in winter.

The land could not be cleared during the construction of the house.

Even if we manage to clear the land, what can we grow?

With the million or so sheep we just bought from Weilumu, we should be able to get through the food problem.

The quartermaster gave him a breakdown of the costs.

Without sufficient staple food.

With an average of one pound of meat per person per day, 350,000 immigrants would consume 700,000 large sheep, each weighing 60 pounds of meat, in just four months.

What about the border troops?
Not to mention the 20,000 troops stationed in Huozhou.

The seven guards of Kansai still have 30,000 troops stationed there, along with over 100,000 military dependents.

With so many sheep, it's really a stretch if they can barely make it to next spring.

Let General Xiong, who previously only knew how to fight, take charge of people's livelihood.

I'm really at a loss.

What can be done?
The only option is to mobilize the wisdom and efforts of all the generals under his command.

Someone suggested:

"A skilled craftsman must first have the right tools. We must first build an iron smelting workshop! We need hoes, hammers, axes, chisels, drills, knives, and shaving tools!"

The proposal was unanimously approved.

General Xiong felt that this proposal had set a good tone for today's meeting, and his mood had eased considerably.
“Very good. All good suggestions will be rewarded! Those that are of great use will be rewarded with ten cows! Those that are of lesser use will be rewarded with ten sheep.”

Under the reward, there must be a brave man.

The generals, who had just been scratching their heads in frustration, suddenly perked up and began to actively use their brain cells, which were not particularly adept at this task.

The topic finally returned to building the house.

Today, the garrison is being repaired using the rammed earth method, a laborious and lengthy construction process.

It's not suitable for the present.

There were those who seemed to have no connection to worldly affairs: "Isn't there coal? We can make bricks! Open ten or eight brick kilns, and keep firing day and night. We can build a courtyard that can house a dozen or twenty people!"

He was immediately bombarded with criticism by a group of people.

Do you know what kind of clay you should choose for making brick blanks?

"Brick making is not that simple. The brick blanks need to be dried for at least twenty days before they can be fired! How many bricks would be needed to build houses for more than 300,000 people?"

"You don't know the cost of firewood and rice until you're in charge of the household! Those immigrants are refugees; do you expect them to live in brick houses as soon as they arrive?"

I almost wanted to ask him if he was crazy!

Moreover, all the garrison posts were still mud houses.

If we need to build brick and tile houses, shouldn't we be rushing to have the garrison come?
That said, apart from Hami City, the royal capital, I really rarely saw locals living in brick houses along the way.

Let's expand on this line of thought.

One general thought of the distinctive dwellings of the foreign tribes in the oasis:
“I think the houses built by the locals are very simple. They just tie the trunks of poplar trees, tamarisk branches and reeds together to form the shape of a house, and then use silt from the river to plaster the walls with these branches.” Some people thought it was good.

Some people disagree:

"Where are we going to find enough tree trunks, tamarisk branches, and reeds for over 300,000 people? Also, the General said that it will snow in Kansai for four months. Living in houses like this, people will probably freeze to death, won't they?"

It sounds incredibly rudimentary.

Talk and talk.

The rammed earth construction method used in the border town was really too late before the snow fell.

The houses built by the locals using branches do not provide insulation.

Gan Minglan actually knew the answer to this question.

What were the conditions like when the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps was reclaiming wasteland?

The dugout was a unique product of the Production and Construction Corps in the 1950s and 60s!

I've watched quite a few documentaries on this subject.

She decided to copy homework in another time and space.

So he pretended to be deep in thought, and after a long while he finally spoke:

"Then let's live in dugouts! Digging dugouts is quick. Just dig a square pit about five or six feet deep below the ground, and build a low wall about three feet high around the pit with adobe bricks or stones."

Place a few rafters on the roof, build a raft made of branches on top, and then cover the roof with grass and mud.

Depending on the size of the pit, a pit for three to five people can be built in three to five days; a large pit for ten or twenty people can be built in ten to fifteen days!
Poplar and tamarisk branches from the desert can be used locally, and pasture grass from the oasis can be dug up along with the turf and put on the roof.

If the area around the dugout is completely covered with pasture, then the dugout will have excellent concealment!

As she spoke, she used General Xiong's brush to sketch the approximate structure and outline of the dugout.

Draw and explain simultaneously:

"Inside the dugout, you can also use adobe bricks to build a hollow fire wall and a kang (heated brick bed) that is half a person high. As long as the charcoal fire in the stove is lit, it will be warm and cozy inside!"

The only drawback is its poor ventilation; if coal is used instead of firewood in winter, one can easily suffocate from the toxic fumes.

Mining engineer Baili Sheng also mentioned the presence of toxic gases during the burning of coal.

But as long as you don't close the doors and windows tightly, it's not a big problem.

The minor drawback of a dugout is negligible compared to its numerous advantages, such as excellent concealment, warmth in winter and coolness in summer, and saving time, effort, and materials.

Another excellent suggestion that passed unanimously.

General Xiong was so pleased that he immediately gave the order:
"General Gan, we need your help in setting up a site for this dugout, determining the best depth to dig, and figuring out the sturdiest way to build the roof. I'll have each camp send a hundred men to assist you, and once they've learned how, they can teach the immigrants."

"Subordinates take orders!"

The others couldn't wait for each battalion to select its assistants.

A dozen or so lieutenant generals and generals immediately summoned their personal guards.

"General Gan, do you think these five hundred men are enough? If not, Ang will call more men!"

"Yes, yes! It sounds so simple to you. Why don't we try it out at the General's Mansion?"

General Xiong had no objections.

That sounds so good, I naturally want to see it for myself.

The Prince Zhongshun's Mansion is so large that any garden in the backyard could be used.

What can Gan Minglan do?
All she has to do is talk.

Dig, dig.

There's no need for 500 people.

Fifty young men took turns working non-stop.

In just over an hour, they dug a pit more than two meters deep and about ten square meters in size.
(End of this chapter)