Chp12: The Big Dam

Time flies, and it is already late January 1631. After more than three months of hard work, the two sides of the Dayu River have undergone significant changes. First of all, on the south bank, industrial areas have been established, with chimneys everywhere. Brick kilns, cement kilns, lime kilns, and wood drying kilns are continuously producing various materials for the time travelers. The logging camps and lime mines have also constructed beautiful and solid brick-and-tile buildings.

The construction of simple wooden houses on the north bank has stopped. The approximately 300 houses that have been built have all been allocated to the time travelers, with two people temporarily sharing a room. Since the stable production of building materials began, the time travelers have looked down upon these simple, leaky wooden houses. The Executive Committee, responding to public opinion, began searching for a new site to build brick-and-tile houses. Once the new houses are built, the original residential area will be demolished, and the land will be used for commercial construction.

The original creek wetland, which had served as the only source of irrigation and living water for the time travelers, will be converted into a small reservoir. In addition, the construction of the port access road, the dredging of the Dayu River, and the building of a new cross-river bridge are all in progress. In short, everything seems to be thriving.

The port access road has been completed ahead of schedule. The construction army, now numbering 160 people, has been left idle, with only a small number of workers remaining to finish the final tasks. Considering that this group of strong laborers, who had been working non-stop for a long time, needed a break, the Executive Committee ensured their well-being by giving them a few days off, along with 120 points each.

The concept of points was introduced by Tang Yuan, the financial committee member, to the Executive Committee. According to Tang Yuan, the 568 modern people who had traveled here were men, women, young, and old, with varying personalities and abilities. While everyone had been in the stage of self-sustaining production and working together before, they might not have had time to think about other matters.

However, now that the travelers had settled in and their lives had become more stable, problems began to arise. Because of the rationing system, everyone's food, clothing, and daily expenses were similar. This led to questions. Some people might wonder why they were stuck doing easy work while others were mining, building roads, or moving bricks without any benefits. While they might not voice this frustration directly, it would show in their work, as those feeling underappreciated would slack off, which could spread to others and have a negative impact.

To address this issue, Tang Yuan suggested implementing a point system. Double points would be awarded to those doing heavy physical labor, technical work, or high-risk tasks, to boost their work enthusiasm. After all, money couldn't be given out. At this stage, gold and silver coins were extremely valuable "foreign exchange" resources for the time travelers, and they were expected to use them to purchase urgently needed materials for production and daily life. Moreover, even if money were distributed, it couldn't be spent, as the time travelers were operating under a communal meal and rationing system, with no commodity market in place.

As for how to use the points, it really made the Executive Committee think hard. After all, this is considered the internal credit currency of the time travelers, and it must have a discount function. Simply put, it must be able to be exchanged for things.

At first, someone proposed exchanging items. However, at this stage, the materials produced by the time travelers are pitifully few, and most of them are building materials and the like. These things cannot be eaten or worn, making them useless for exchange. It was estimated that no one would want to exchange points for these items.

Then someone asked whether points could be exchanged for land. This raised the issue of land ownership, and since everyone had not yet reached a consensus on this matter, it had to be put aside for the time being. Finally, it was Tang Yuan who suggested that the next batch of brick-and-tile houses should be allocated first to those with higher points. For certain positions, under the same conditions, those with higher points would be given priority. In addition, points could also be exchanged for paid food—currently, dried fish and wine. When goods become more abundant in the future, the scope of exchange would gradually expand.

Everyone thought it over and decided that this was the best option for now, so the points system was established.

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On January 30, the construction army, which had rested for five days, was dispatched again.

After Xiao Bailang and Wang Tiechui's efforts, the Executive Committee finally agreed to address the problem of several ships, including Yunsheng No. 1, which had been stranded for several months.

The plan initially approved by the Executive Committee was divided into several steps: 1. Build dams upstream and downstream of the area where the ships had run aground; 2. Dig tributaries to divert water from the upstream dam; 3. Organize manpower to clear silt and dredge the river. The draft of Yunsheng No. 1 is about 4-4.2 meters, and the river where it ran aground is a shallow beach with a water depth of less than 3.5 meters, so it had run aground for about 0.5-0.7 meters. Fortunately, the work required was not particularly huge.

The number of people mobilized by the Executive Committee reached a record 200. The first day's work involved digging a diversion channel, with the excavated earth being bagged and thrown into the river to build a dam. This section of the diversion channel, about 150 meters long, took a full week for the time travelers to complete. At the same time, the dams at the upstream and downstream locations, more than 100 meters apart, were also taking shape.

"The dams must be compacted," said Shao Shude, who, as a former construction contractor, was tasked with overseeing the construction. "Let's not talk about the dam downstream, but the one upstream must be done well. This time we are not building a one-time dam. The Executive Committee has decided that the dam upstream will eventually be built into a concrete dam. As you know, the water flow of Dayu River is slow and difficult to harness. Some comrades from the industrial department have already proposed whether it is possible to build a permanent dam so that we can use the water resources here to build hydraulic mills, hydraulic forging hammers, and so on."

"Commissioner Shao, building dams is easy. The key is how to construct this waterway?" Liu Dafa glanced at Shao Shude and asked in a low voice. This kid was now a team leader in the construction team but still had a cautious temperament.

"I've considered the waterway and plan to build several large brick culverts inside the dam," Shao Shude replied. "This will also facilitate the construction of new sluices in the future."

After inspecting the dam, Shao Shude personally went down to the river. The water had been drained long ago, and the time travelers had caught a lot of fish and shrimp during the drainage process, which was an unexpected bonus. After being exposed to the sun for several days, the riverbed had become much drier. The construction team placed a large number of wooden boards and reed mats on the riverbed so people wouldn't sink easily when stepping on them.

The construction team of nearly 200 people was divided into several sections and began dredging and digging mud simultaneously. After careful observation and estimation, Shao Shude determined that each person could only dig about 2-3 cubic meters of silt per day, which was not very fast. According to the Executive Committee's plan, the river channel had to be dredged to a depth of 5 meters, which meant digging about 1.5 meters deeper from the existing foundation. A rough calculation showed that the total earthwork for the project was about 5,000 cubic meters, requiring the time travelers to work hard for more than ten days.

With a light sigh, Shao Shude stopped talking and took a shovel to dig the silt himself. The excavated silt was transported by special workers to the brick kiln, where it was made into bricks for firing.

On February 18, the dredging work was officially completed. With Shao Shude's order, the wooden temporary water-stop gates stacked between the dam culverts were pulled up. Four culverts released surging water waves simultaneously. As the water level gradually rose, the tugboats and barges floated up first. When the water level climbed to more than 4 meters, Yunsheng No. 1 slowly floated up.

At this time, everyone at the downstream embankment worked together to dig a waterway wide enough for several ships to pass through.

Wang Tiechui had already started the main engine of the freighter. When the water level stopped rising, the ship began to move forward slowly. Meanwhile, Lao Zhang's tugboat had already towed several barges through the reserved waterway in the middle. The waterway was quite wide, and since the tugboats and barges were not very large, they passed smoothly after careful navigation and headed toward the estuary.

When it was Yunsheng No. 1's turn to pass through the waterway, everyone was very nervous. The width of Yunsheng No. 1, which weighed more than 2,000 tons, was 12.5 meters, and the reserved waterway in the middle was only 15 or 16 meters wide. If it accidentally hit the embankment, the consequences would have been disastrous. Fortunately, Wang Tiechui's skills were good, and Yunsheng No. 1 successfully navigated through the waterway and sailed to the sea outside the estuary. It then moored at the dock built by the time travelers.

When Wang Tiechui lowered the anchor chain and turned off the main engine, cheers suddenly erupted from the dock!