Chapter 510 - Preparatory Work

The laborers slated for deployment to Sanya had been training for over three months. They were healthy young adults recruited from among the immigrants—more than three thousand in all—organized into military-style units and drilled accordingly.

This labor force would land as construction workers. After completing the infrastructure work, they would transition directly into employees of the Tiandu Mining Bureau.

In the Director's vision, this was the transmigrated collective's Construction Corps. The project manager from the Lingao Construction Company tasked with overseeing the engineering work, Zhuo Tianmin, was not at all keen on the title.

"I say we just call it the Engineering Team. 'Corps' sounds too grandiose. Besides, how is a construction company supposed to command a corps?"

After the military training concluded, specialized vocational training began for the large engineering team. The military phase had been chiefly meant to instill organization and discipline; the transmigrated collective had no intention of using them for combat. A full infantry battalion would be detached from the Army and dispatched to Yulinbao, where it would be permanently stationed. To this end, the Army was authorized to recruit a supplementary battalion from newly cleared immigrants in quarantine.

This infantry battalion would constitute the transmigrated collective's core military force in the future Sanya region. Its missions were twofold: to counter any hostile indigenous forces or Ming troops that might appear, and—more importantly—to deter and suppress insurrection within the Engineering Team itself. In the Executive Committee's assessment, given the harsh local conditions and the intensity of construction, such incidents were virtually inevitable.

Zhuo Tianmin submitted a list to the Executive Committee itemizing every category of specialized worker he needed. Besides the more than one thousand basic laborers, the Lingao Construction Company's own construction crews would have to deploy in full. Various departments would also have to assign a number of skilled workers to accompany the mission.

Even so, the gaps were large. Zhuo Tianmin therefore requested that the Executive Committee coordinate the assignment of skilled workers to train the Engineering Team—this would at least address some of the less technically demanding trades.

He established five training classes, drawing participants from among the laborers.

The first was a construction-worker training class, taught by rough carpenters, masons, and plumbers from the Lingao Construction Company's crews.

The second was a blasting training class, dedicated to explosives and demolition work, taught by Pan Da's combat engineers.

The third was a road-building training class, led by Shan Daoqian and Li Chiqi. In addition to road construction and rail-laying, the curriculum included vehicle maintenance and driving skills.

The fourth was a foraging training class, conducted by members of the Long-Range Exploration Team. The Yulin Harbor area was still a wilderness, rich in timber and wild flora and fauna—resources too valuable to waste. Trainees learned logging, fishing, gathering, and hunting techniques.

The final class was a hygiene training class, organized by the Ministry of Health to produce a cohort of basic medics. The Ministry would also dispatch a seven-person medical team to accompany the deployment, but against a first wave of over one thousand personnel—followed by another thousand—a seven-member team was a drop in the bucket. A great deal of basic hygiene and health care would require trained hands.

In addition to the construction and mining laborers, Wu De, following directives, had selected three hundred immigrant households for resettlement as a group. This cohort would be led by Hu Wumei—also known as Fatty Hu—a former pirate chief who had served under Zhu Cailao. They would become residents of the new Anyoule Town.

These immigrants had been selected with an eye to occupational balance: most were farmers, but the group also included artisans and small traders. They would arrive in Yulin Harbor after the infrastructure was complete.

To acclimatize the Engineering Team to the upcoming sea voyage—and prevent seasickness from disabling them upon landing—Zhuo Tianmin arranged for the laborers to sleep aboard empty ships moored in Bopu Harbor as adaptation training.

For transporting the Engineering Team, Zhuo Tianmin selected Qionghai Coal—the largest vessel in the transmigrated collective's possession, capable of carrying enough people in a single voyage. Chen Haiyang promptly recalled Qionghai Coal from its coal-hauling duties, substituting smaller vessels.

After the recalled ship had its holds cleaned, it was renamed Sanya One. Its primary mission would be troop transport. Hammocks and bunks were crammed aboard, and footboards and handrails for latrines were installed along the gunwales.

For cargo transport, the auxiliary vessel chosen was a 1,500-ton self-propelled flat-deck barge. Its large capacity and shallow draft made it ideal for the landing operation. Previously, fuel shortages had kept it dormant at Bopu, serving only as a floating crane. Now its crane was removed and the hull cleaned out. Compartments were unsealed; the empty fuel tanks were reconnected to Fengcheng's oil lines and refilled with diesel.

"Can this thing still move?" Wang Luobin asked, a little worried.

"Definitely," Meng De assured him. "When we put it in storage, the engine room was given a full overhaul before sealing, according to regulations. It's only been a year and a bit—no problems."

When the generator was test-run, everything was indeed normal. Self-propelled barges were low-tech and built to take a beating.

This barge was christened Swift Whale. Together with Great Whale—now undergoing modernization with a diesel-engine installation—it would handle the transport of heavy equipment and large materials for this operation.

Wang Luobin took his mechanical-department crew aboard Fengcheng and wandered through its cavernous engine room, heads together in murmured discussion.

"Chief Wang, I don't think the small coal-gas generator can handle bringing the auxiliary engines back online," Jiang Ye said, pushing up his hard hat. The darkened engine room stank of machine oil, the air thick and stale. Since Fengcheng's auxiliary engines had been shut down, the auxiliary-engine compartment had been sealed; apart from monthly inspections, no one entered.

"It would be such a waste not to get these big auxiliaries running again. The generating capacity of these two auxiliaries alone equals who knows how many locomobiles."

Wang Luobin's task was to bring Fengcheng's generators back online to partially meet the shore's power needs. The locomobiles currently at Bopu Power Station were slated for shipment to Yulin Harbor to serve as the first landing party's mobile power station.

"Too bad the coal-coking plant's diesel output is so low."

"Let's burn coconut oil. Marine auxiliaries are pretty rugged—they don't need high-grade diesel."

"First, coconut oil's viscosity is too high; without hydrogenation it probably won't work. Second, coconut-oil production is limited too, and marine auxiliaries are fuel hogs," Wang Luobin said, gazing at the hulking, high-powered marine diesel auxiliaries in the darkness. If only they could remove the generators connected to them—running them on steam would be easy enough.

But extracting those generator sets and re-installing them ashore to run again would involve an enormous amount of work, with no guarantee of success. Generators—especially high-capacity ones—were among the transmigrated collective's most precious assets.

"What about a continuous-feed coal-gas generator?"

"The piping's hard to build. It needs to be airtight and run over water; our current materials probably aren't up to it," Wang Luobin shook his head.

"Why not just build it on deck?" Xiao Gui suggested. "Put the gasifier directly on deck. The piping can use existing engine-room plumbing, or we can fabricate our own."

"The only worry is an explosion," Wang Luobin said. Still, it was an easy solution.

"The risk isn't too great," Jiang Ye said; coal-gas generators were right up his alley. "Use better materials for the gasifier, install it directly on deck, and surround it with blast-resistant sandbags."

The discussion concluded with a decision to install a gasifier on Fengcheng's deck. This infuriated Li Di: the graceful lines of the big iron ship would now be topped not only by a coal-gas bladder but also sandbags and a coal bunker. It was hideous.

But electricity was paramount; Li Di's objections were overruled. Even his argument about military security was dismissed—someone had demonstrated that, apart from the transmigrated collective's own artillery, no one else could lob a shell onto Fengcheng's deck.

"Relax—as soon as the petroleum industry gets going, we'll take all this off," Wang Luobin consoled him.

"That'll be in the year of the monkey, the month of the horse."

"It won't be that long. The Second Five-Year Plan will definitely include it."

Chen Haiyang raised no objections. Without the auxiliaries running, Fengcheng was essentially a dead ship; relying on power fed from shore, only a few systems could operate, and much of its onboard equipment went unused. He was, however, concerned about safety—coal gas and coal piled on deck; an explosion or fire would be catastrophic.

"For now, we can only say take every precaution. There are no guarantees in industrial production," Wang Luobin said. "The ship already has water pumps aboard; the key is proper protocols and accountability. The naval ratings you've stationed aboard could stand to do fire drills in addition to their regular training."

"I'll make that a priority," Chen Haiyang said. "You also need to remind the operators to practice safe production. Fengcheng may be 'tied to the wharf' for now, but it's our fleet-in-being—a symbol of deterrence. If something goes wrong, it would be nothing less than the shattering of a myth."

Once Fengcheng's auxiliaries were running and feeding power into the grid, the four mobile 100-horsepower locomobiles at Bopu Power Station were all shut down. The machines were sent to the Machinery Works, disassembled for their first major overhaul. Going forward, the Industry Commission would no longer rely on locomobiles as the primary generating equipment.

"Since we've proven that diesel engines can run on coal gas, we can put all our stockpiled diesel generator sets into service," Wang Luobin issued instructions to Chang Kaishen at the Electric Power Company.

The transmigrated collective had brought several diesel generator sets, but owing to fuel shortages they had been sealed in reserve after operating briefly in the period before the Bairen Hydroelectric Station came online. Now that coal-gas substitution had proven successful, the generator sets could be recommissioned.

After the locomobiles and their ancillary generators were cleaned and overhauled, they would be installed aboard two new purpose-built small power barges under construction at the shipyard. These would serve as mobile power stations. Compared to diesel generator sets, their greatest advantage was fuel convenience—highly suited to an era in which, outside Lingao, petroleum fuels simply did not exist.

(End of Chapter)