New World 1620

Friday, November 1620, 11, was overcast.

Last night, the first snow of winter in North America finally came.White covered the original yellow-green mottled island forests, and the entire Hudson Estuary area looked like a snow-white cake cut into several pieces.Only occasionally a wisp of black smoke emerges from the whiteness, and is quietly taken away by the cold wind.

A few days ago, the Brooklyn Bend Industrial Zone in the southeast of the Manhattan community and on the other side of the East River was cleared of a wide flat area. More than a dozen men in winter clothes or overcoats were divided into several groups, carrying Several drawings discuss the final construction matters in the clearing between the river bank and the woodland.

In the Brooklyn industrial zone, which currently covers an area of ​​less than [-] acres, there are only a few simple brick and stone yards and cement yards that are still in full swing. The Delaware Indians who can benefit a lot after winter People have become the first batch of foreign employees in the Brooklyn industrial zone, and the larger industrial production layout is still on paper.

There are so many things to do this winter, which puts manpower allocation in the most embarrassing situation.Fortunately, the "Indian Goodwill Task Force" headed by the two-knife tour guide Li Xiang continued to move around. Several Delaware Indian villages on the east and west sides of the Hudson River have become the labor force that the community committee can use. The farthest visit even Already west of Jersey City in later generations.

The leaders of the Indian villages were very happy to be able to get employment from the Chinese in the winter, and even they didn't need to prepare anything, and they could get many "rich returns" after the work was over.Several Indian villages on Long Island and Staten Island readily agreed to Chinese employment deals, and provided manpower far beyond the expectations of the community committees.

On the edge of the industrial area, another piece of woodland and wetland swamp has completed the final ground preparation work. The felled logs have piled up several wooden mountains, and a drainage ditch leading to the main drainage channel is still under construction.

About 100 Indian hired workers with various tools in their hands watched and waited around the newly opened flat land with curious expressions.The Indians, who had just had a hot meal of potato gravy, were wearing winter clothes presented by the residents of Manhattan, and all of them touched each other with great joy.

For the act of transferring the old clothes discarded by the residents of the community to the Indians, Su Zining slandered for a while.If the committee hadn't ensured that all old clothes had been strictly scalded and disinfected, he would have almost connected this matter with the European colonists who used the same method to exterminate a large number of Indians.At that time, various infectious diseases represented by smallpox took the lives of dozens or even millions of Indians with the help of old clothes.

Looking at the lively appearance of young Indians who regarded their old winter clothes as treasures, Su Zining could only feel how wonderful it is to change history.

……

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"Here, the construction of a batch of factory buildings must be completed before the end of the year, and the batch of second-hand machine tools must be shipped over as soon as possible... Now that there is iron ore, the pig iron smelting work must start as soon as possible. How about the smelting plant being arranged there?"

Jiang Zhaolong, the person in charge of the Ministry of Industry, and Lin Youde, the chief engineer, squatted beside the wooden shed on the construction site, looking at the map and pointing at the flat land around them. Almost all industrial development plans were made by the two of them.

"The ore grade is not high, so we can only produce gray iron first. If the supply of ore and coal does not increase, it is estimated that the production capacity will not exceed 500 tons in the first month. Only some simple tools can be produced, and now all the power is in use. It depends on the diesel engine, and the consumption of diesel is estimated not to be small." Lin Youde was holding a piece of ore in his hand, groping the surface of the ore with his fingers.

"When the foundry is also set up and enough basic tools are produced, we can try to disassemble those ships. It's not a big problem to make some good things. Try to get steam engine power. There is a shortage of professional and technical workers, otherwise, I still have to I plan to build a glass production plant together." Jiang Zhaolong sighed, feeling unspeakably aggrieved by the current situation.

"After a while, simple primary metal processing will be fine, but the Ministry of Chemical Industry is not doing well. I guess they are more frustrated than you now, and they are trying to produce acid and alkali with local methods all day long. The output of the experimental level of local methods can hardly produce anything. It’s something.” Lin Youde stood up preoccupied, stretched his arms, his exhaled breath was obviously white, “Without bauxite, there is no way to fire refractory bricks, and some of the basic chemical raw materials they want also need coking to obtain.”

As the well-known difficult topics unfolded, the two industry experts quickly put aside these problems that bothered them for the time being, and only discussed technical solutions based on the best efforts they could make at present.All types of work that can be replaced by Indian hired labor should be replaced as much as possible, and modern workers should be concentrated as much as possible for the most critical industrial construction.

On the other side of the industrial area, near the bend of the river, another wave of managers and engineers from the Manhattan community gathered on the shore, and not far behind were more than 200 Indian employees who were eager to try.

Although the material and technical conditions for building the most advanced ocean-going galleons of this era are not yet sufficient, the community committee decided to advance the infrastructure construction of the shipbuilding industry after consulting the Ministry of Industry.After all, including the sea anti-smuggling ship and fishing boat also need a place that can be maintained.

The construction of a 2000-ton dry dock and a slipway became the top priority of these projects.Qi Jianjun, who was appointed by the community committee as the project commander, ran around without touching the ground for several days, choosing sites and demonstrating technical solutions.

The dock project is not only reflected in the size of a hole dug, but also involves the geographical conditions of the dock's outlet channel and coast, as well as various hydrological data such as river tides, but these problems have not been able to match the world in the hands of geography teacher An Shaoqing. On the city tour map, the location of the later Brooklyn Shipyard was quickly found, right under everyone's feet.

The expansion of community settlements and the development of Brooklyn's industrial estate have resulted in the acquisition of large quantities of high-quality oak and fir.But they are far from being usable shipbuilding materials. Usually, if there is no other wood treatment process, at least three years of natural drying process is necessary.

As for sails, such a crushing strategic material can only be temporarily resolved through European trade before the textile industry in the community industrial zone is really established.

Zheng Quan couldn't wait, and some people in the Manhattan community couldn't wait.All work was carried out at the same time with the slogans prepared in advance, and the tiny Mayflower deeply aroused the competitiveness and imitation desire of some big-ship gunnery nerds.

All basic work must be forward-looking, this is Su Zining's point of view at the regular meeting of the community committee.

Several English indentured slaves who used to work as shipwrights in Portsmouth were arranged to assist in these projects after undergoing strict physical examination and confirming that there were no hidden diseases.They were told that, in addition to receiving an extra winter food ration, they would even be given the status of freedom in advance at some point in the future.

This lollipop moved the men in England who were so poor that they had to sell their bodies and risk their lives to make a living in the New World.