Chapter 212: Bamboo-Reinforced Concrete
The solution lay in treating the bamboo reinforcement. The Bopu chemical plant had already mastered the production of wood tar and coal tar—two staples of industrial chemistry with histories stretching back centuries.
A simple distillation apparatus could extract numerous chemical products from these tars. Lately, to meet steelmaking demands, the Metallurgy Department had been coking at Bopu, accumulating substantial reserves of coal tar. This viscous, black sludge had found various uses—the chemical plant fashioned it into incendiary tar bombs, slathered it on telegraph poles lining the roads, and waterproofed ship hulls with it. Yet much of it still languished in ceramic jars, awaiting further purpose. Alongside the coal tar, the chemical plant had received vast quantities of wood tar, a byproduct of the timber processing plant's charcoal production. The stuff was piled everywhere in temporary warehouses.
Ji Situi had yet to install the distillation tower, and the distilled products would require acid and alkali washing, so processing remained impossible for now. But having so much material heaped in the sheds—to say nothing of the stench—meant someone had to stand guard. Both locals and transmigrators had designs on these stores. The natives' intentions were relatively harmless—mostly schemes to burn it as fuel or smear it on boats for waterproofing. The transmigrators, however, each harbored their own wild schemes, and some of their half-baked chemistry experiments were sufficiently reckless to give Ji Situi cold sweats.
When Mei Wan came asking for help, Ji Situi expressed enthusiasm—better someone put the stuff to use than let it sit. Coal tar was among the most fundamental of preservatives; using it to treat bamboo reinforcement was more than adequate.
Mei Wan first soaked the prepared bamboo strips in wood tar. This wasn't merely to coat them; he hoped the dried bamboo would absorb the creosote, rendering it water-resistant while protecting against rot and insects.
After soaking for several days, once the bamboo reinforcement was confirmed to be fully saturated, it was removed and brushed evenly with coal tar. In the original timeline, of course, this process would have been far more sophisticated. But given their limited chemical capabilities, the transmigrators could only resort to the simplest methods.
Even after treatment, the bamboo reinforcement required physical modification before it could serve as suitable material for bamboo-reinforced concrete. Bamboo's overly smooth surface presented a critical drawback—not only was it difficult to secure when tying the reinforcement framework, but concrete adhered poorly and was prone to shifting and bubbling. The solution was to alter the bamboo's shape by cutting notches into it. Another approach was wrapping wire around the reinforcement.
Fortunately, though the Metallurgy Department's steel reserves couldn't supply rebar, eighteen-gauge iron wire was readily available. Wire processing was straightforward—wrought iron rods placed in steel dies and drawn multiple times with powered machinery. The process was simple and consumed little raw material. Upon learning that the Construction Corporation wished to experiment with bamboo-reinforced concrete prefabricated panels, the Metallurgy Department immediately expressed strong support, readily agreeing to supply as much wire as needed. After all, various departments had been clamoring for wire lately: Lingao Telecommunications needed to lay telephone lines, and the Light Industry Department was about to begin producing sewing needles.
The entire Construction Corporation threw itself into the work of tying reinforcement. This task demanded genuine technical skill—had Mei Wan himself not come from construction sites, he truly wouldn't have been able to manage it. Making matters worse, this wasn't steel rebar but smooth bamboo. Several people led the Construction Corporation's regular workers through the process, wrapping and winding bamboo strips over and over. Their only reference was a few blurry printed photographs. None of the transmigrators had done this work before, and it wasn't long before someone drew blood and earned an honorable wound.
"Lord above, this is far more trouble than steel rebar," Yan Quezhi complained.
Bing Feng nodded. "Saves materials but not labor. And the strength is compromised. If this were truly as good as they claim, why wasn't it widely adopted?"
Mei Wan felt a twinge of regret by now, but he couldn't show it. "Right now, it's a matter of having something versus having nothing. We're even mixing our own concrete—back in the day, we'd have called a commercial concrete company to send over a few mixer trucks and been done with it."
The first prefabricated panel underwent testing after three days of curing. It proved fully usable as a lightweight floor panel—an encouraging result.
"That said, believe it or not, I still wouldn't use this stuff for load-bearing components," Bing Feng remained apprehensive.
True though that was, the substitute went immediately into production—Baireng City was experiencing a new construction boom, with buildings rising everywhere. Having prefabricated concrete components was an enormous convenience for the Construction Corporation. Mei Wan immediately conducted comprehensive training for the native construction workers, teaching them to tie reinforcement and make prefabricated panels. Soon, the first batch of cement floor panels went into the construction of "New Countryside" and the stadium.
Thanks to the machinery, the project progressed at a remarkable pace. A single excavator's hourly output equaled a full day's labor from dozens of workers. For tamping, Mei Wan employed a combination of steamroller compaction and manual ramming, with construction continuing through the night. After dark, over a dozen gas lamps and countless torches lit the construction site bright as day. All personnel worked in two shifts, day and night blurring into one continuous effort. The site rumbled with machinery and buzzed with voices around the clock.
"This project really has the atmosphere of a great campaign," Bing Feng remarked. He had just finished supervising a section and dragged his exhausted body back to the construction headquarters tent. Though the outside temperature remained below 10°C, he wore only a dirt-and-dust-covered T-shirt. Having slept only four or five hours a night for three or four consecutive days, his eyes were rimmed red.
"Have some Wong Lo Kat." Yan Quezhi brought over a large plastic bottle filled with herbal tea made according to Wu Nanhai's personal recipe. Though the transmigrator canteen had been transferred to the General Office, it was still the original Agriculture Department staff who did the work.
"I'd rather drink plain boiled water than that stuff." Bing Feng shuddered at the herbal tea's smell. This wasn't like the canned version from the other timeline, which at least had sugar and flavoring added. Though it tasted peculiar, it remained tolerable.
Bing Feng gulped down the lightly salted saline water specially prepared by the Health Department, wiped his sweat with a towel, and let out a long breath.
"I dream of drinking Coca-Cola," he lamented. The small pleasures of the other timeline had become remote and unattainable. Sometimes he truly regretted coming here. Wasn't this the same as before—no, worse than before? At least back then he could drink as much Coke as he wanted.
"Face each completed section with stone immediately; don't wait for other sections." Mei Wan directed at the site every day, eyes red, voice hoarse from shouting.
"Manager Mei is really giving it his all," Bing Feng said to Zhuo Tianmin. The latter didn't respond, looking worried and distressed—he hadn't been home in three days. Though he'd entrusted his son to Wu De's household, he still felt uneasy.
Yan Quezhi spoke up. "I just don't understand—why is the Chairman so eager for this thing? Is it really needed right now?"
"The military parade, brother."
"Military parade?"
"That's right—for the natives coming to the conference. A demonstration of power." Bing Feng had recently been busy finishing the Army Club project and knew the Army had been drilling formations since the New Year.
"Wasting money and manpower," Yan Quezhi said disapprovingly. "If you ask me, wouldn't expanding the hydroelectric plant be more urgent? The cost of building this massive reviewing stand would be enough to build two big dams on the Wenlan River."
"You have no idea how much the Executive Committee has invested in this." Bing Feng pulled a cigarette from his pocket. "Want one?"
"What, you've got cigarettes?" Yan Quezhi took it from him and discovered it was hand-rolled. The rough paper was obviously a local product, though the tobacco inside was golden yellow.
"Tobacco the Foreign Trade Company brought from Macau. I managed to get hold of a little and rolled them myself."
"I suspect they're building this thing just to satisfy the leadership ambitions of those Executive Committee big shots. Ma Qianzhu is probably itching to shout those lines—'Comrades, greetings! Comrades, you've worked hard!'"
"Don't wrong Manager Ma—even if anyone were to shout that, it wouldn't be his turn. Director Wen is the Executive Committee Chairman. At most, Ma would shout 'Please review the troops'—he's the Chief of Staff, after all."
"I notice they're quite united on this matter."
The two of them puffed away. Truth be told, this tobacco tasted nothing like cigarettes—it was sun-dried tobacco, not the flue-cured variety used in modern cigarettes. Combined with the rough rolling paper, it was merely better than nothing.
"This is special-supply goods from the Foreign Trade Company—where did you get it? They don't sell it in the canteen."
"Living off the land." Bing Feng shrugged. "This is military tobacco allocated to the Army. Haven't we been helping them build their club lately? I've been directing at the site, so they've given me quite a lot."
"You're engaging in corruption—"
"The Army is poor. The Navy's the real power," Bing Feng said with a note of envy, exhaling a puff of smoke and coughing twice. "If I didn't get seasick, I'd have joined the Navy too. The life they live—"
"We construction people have it hard." Yan Quezhi watched Mei Lin directing workers laying stone blocks, sweating profusely, and Li Xiaolü taking level readings with a surveyor's instrument—a group of people laboring away. "Even women are working on the site."
"Quite chivalrous, aren't you? What, interested?"
"Not at all," Yan Quezhi denied quickly. "She barely says three sentences a day besides work, and always looks like men owe her five million. Even if I were interested, I'd lose it fast."
"True," Bing Feng agreed. "We need to train some people—at least get some construction foremen and technicians trained. That way we won't have to be on site ourselves every day."
"Aren't they supposed to build a school after the conference? Let's apply to start a department there: Civil Engineering."
"Forget foremen. Can I at least get a secretary? Someone to rub my shoulders and pound my legs after work—call it a perk."
"Hehe, there aren't even forty girls about to graduate from the nursing school. Would we get a turn?"
"True. Manager Mei might get one, though."
(End of Chapter)