Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 148 Number of Casualties

Purficott entered the warehouse. She could feel that the temperature inside the warehouse was still within an acceptable range, and the furnace was burning.

But obviously there is not enough fuel inside. When you open the furnace, you can see that the flames are a bit small. Only a log of firewood and some burned cinders are still barely keeping burning. You have to get closer to feel a trace of warmth.

The coal was piled in the corner and simply surrounded by wooden boards, and some firewood was piled next to it.

It can be seen that this should be temporarily stored to avoid being unable to obtain fuel due to snow accumulation problems.

But it was obvious that their reserves were not sufficient. Judging from the black marks left on the wall, they had used up most of their stocks.

"How many days can your fuel last?" Purficott frowned. Although the situation here is still optimistic, it is obvious that it will not last long.

"In about two days, there is still a lot of food, but the medicine and fuel are almost exhausted." Lieutenant Mikhail whispered the truth to Purficott, and before Purficott came, he told What the patients here say is that they can last at least five days.

Purficott nodded clearly and walked around the warehouse. He saw that most of the patients' mental states and emotions were quite stable. Although they had some symptoms, they were not particularly serious, so he relaxed a little. He frowned a little.

She could tell that these people basically suffered from frostbite or various illnesses caused by low temperature.

The problem is not too serious and no one will die, but if they cannot maintain the fuel supply and maintain the temperature of the warehouse, they will soon have various problems due to hypothermia.

You must know that the physical fitness of the patients is much lower than that of normal people. If heating is not guaranteed, they will freeze to death very quickly.

"Are there any more serious patients here?" Purficott didn't understand everyone's situation. He just took a cursory look and asked Mikhail who was standing aside.

"There are some serious situations, but after giving priority to ensuring their heating, they are still under control." Mikhail gave a not-so-good answer, and the meaning behind his words could not avoid one key point. Factor – Heating.

As long as heating is ensured, it doesn't matter even if the outdoor temperature is minus 40 or 50 degrees Celsius.

But without heating, you don't even need to drop the temperature to freezing point to freeze to death.

The warehouse they are currently in was specially designed by Purficot. The walls are filled with carbon sponge with good thermal insulation effect, which is enough to ensure that the indoor temperature can be kept above zero even when the outdoor temperature is more than ten degrees below zero.

It's just that the empty space inside the warehouse makes this thermal insulation effect somewhat compromised. When the stove is turned on, it can maintain a temperature of about 10°C.

This temperature cannot be considered high, but it is not low either. At least it is a very comfortable temperature if you have enough warm clothes.

However, as the supply of fuel is insufficient, Purficott can currently feel that the temperature in the entire warehouse is about 5 to 6 degrees Celsius. The temperature may be higher near the stove, but the overall temperature is only so much.

You can imagine what would happen here once the fuel runs out.

Although the insulation effect of the warehouse itself would prevent many people from freezing to death, there is still no doubt that a few people in poor health would freeze to death. And what's particularly bad is another problem. Although there is a large amount of food and supplies stored in the warehouse, once the fuel supply is lost, the people in the camp will not be able to eat even a bite of hot food.

In the cold winter conditions, without fuel for heating and no hot food, this is simply catastrophic.

What kind of bad situation would result from the combined influence of the two was something Purficott didn't want to think about, but he could foresee it just by looking up.

Purficott also considered transporting some seriously ill patients to the New World colonies by airship. Although the medical conditions there might not be as good, at least the temperature would be higher and there would be no heating problems.

However, Purficott has not said anything about this yet. She still needs to confirm the situation at the military camp.

After all, there is no warehouse over there that can keep out the cold, so the situation is likely to be far worse than here at the warehouse.

"I've already asked people to open up the railway line, and I'm also figuring out the fuel issue. Just survive these two days and it'll be fine." Purficott said a few words to reassure people, and then checked the maids who were down. Oops, I was just about to leave the warehouse and go to the military camp to take a look at the situation.

At this time, two steam knights that had been assembled also came to the warehouse, and they were waiting for Purficott's order.

"Ask everyone to go to the surrounding forest to get some trees and chop them into firewood for use first." Purficott gave them an order directly, and asked one of the steam knights to convey the order before letting the other steam knight The knight sent himself to the military camp.

On the way to the military camp, Purficott did not use alchemy anymore, but relied on the powerful power of the steam knight to "squeeze" a path in the snow.

This is difficult for people to do, but it is not difficult for steam knights. They are powerful enough to do this kind of thing.

When they arrived at the military camp, the old butler Foster was already standing at the door of the military camp, waiting for Perfectcott's arrival.

"Miss, you're here!" The old housekeeper looked a little excited when he saw Purficott, but overall he was relatively calm. Before Purficott could speak, he introduced her to the current situation in the military camp: "I'm sorry, miss, because of the blizzard. Relations, many people in the military camp were severely frostbitten, and the number of soldiers was reduced by nearly 20%. Most of them suffered from frostbite, colds and typhoid fever, and a small number of serious cases may require amputation.

Fifteen more soldiers had died in action. Seven of them were killed by the snow when their igloos collapsed, while the other eight died of pneumonia caused by the cold. "

Speaking of this, the old butler said in a guilty tone: "I originally wanted to send people to the warehouse, but the previous blizzard was really too heavy. Even if I did it myself, I couldn't dig out a path. The passage was delayed, and these soldiers died of illness due to the delay."

"It's a crime other than war, I know." Purficott did not comfort the old butler at this time, nor did he show that he didn't care. He just said to the old butler: "Grandpa Afu, transport the soldiers who are in the most serious condition to the aircraft." On the empty boat, send them to Xinshak City first.

For the rest, I started up forty steam riders who would bring back enough fuel from the forest. "

Hearing what Purficott said, the tense expression on Foster's face finally relaxed. He had also wanted to send people to cut trees before, but the weather in the north did not support this at all.

(End of this chapter)