Chapter 19: The Shipyard

The next day, Bai Guoshi slept in late. The brother on duty at the block entrance told him a girl had come looking for him, but he had sent her away because Bai Guoshi was still asleep. Bai Guoshi figured it must have been Zhao Xue—coming to find him so early in the morning could only mean she wanted to have breakfast together at the cafeteria. It was a golden opportunity to deepen their emotional connection, and he had missed it. He smacked his head in annoyance.

Another frustrating thing was that after leaving the committee meeting yesterday, his head was spinning from the long debate. When Wei Aiwen asked him for a cigarette, he had absentmindedly given him the whole pack, of which he had only smoked one. The pain! It was a hard-case pack of Zhonghua cigarettes—the going rate for a pack was ridiculously high now. Luckily, he had brought a whole carton.

“What bad luck,” Bai Guoshi thought, feeling gloomy. He couldn’t even be bothered to eat breakfast. He pulled a disgusting “Grassland No. 5” rice cracker from his pocket. It was the standard ration for fieldwork, but nobody liked it, so there were plenty left over.

Chewing on the rice cracker that seemed impossible to swallow, Bai Guoshi arrived at the exploration team’s office. He had just sat down and poured a glass of water to wash down the cracker when Liu Zheng walked in, chuckling as he saw him. Bai Guoshi was puzzled.

“Xiao Bai, Zhao Xue has been officially transferred to our department as of today.”

“Really?!” Bai Guoshi was so excited he shot to his feet, nearly choking on the rice cracker.

“Don’t get excited, of course, it’s true.” Liu Zheng smiled and calmed him down. “A man and a woman working together makes the work less tiring. Xiao Bai, you have to seize the opportunity—”

Before Bai Guoshi could say anything, Zhao Xue burst in, demanding, “I heard I’m being left at the base and not allowed to go on field missions!”

“Well, hehe, yes,” Liu Zheng nodded. “Your leg isn’t well, and you’re not suited for this kind of long-range fieldwork. As our exploration team expands, we need someone to hold down the fort. We can’t just leave it empty. This also fits with your IT expertise, analyzing and organizing intelligence. Your job is very important. First, you’ll provide mission briefings to the remote teams before they depart, giving them a preliminary understanding of their reconnaissance targets. Second, when they return, you’ll compile the intelligence they’ve gathered and write reports for the Intelligence Committee. There’s also a pile of administrative tasks to handle. It’s a heavy burden, but don’t worry, the comrades and I will help you as much as we can.” Zhao Xue said thoughtfully, “So it’s that important…”

Seeing that she had been placated, Liu Zheng quickly said, “I have something to attend to, so I’ll be going. You two carry on,” creating an opportunity for Bai Guoshi.

Bai Guoshi suddenly felt like the luckiest man alive. Was it the good karma from giving away a pack of cigarettes? But Wei Aiwen was no old lady crossing the street.

As he was wondering how to start the conversation, Zhao Xue spoke first. “I came looking for you this morning. How were you still sleeping?”

“I was dead tired yesterday. You have no idea how late the Executive Committee meeting went,” Bai Guoshi couldn’t help but boast, describing how poised he was during his presentation, adding embellishments like how he had sternly pointed out the committee’s lack of attention to the remote exploration cause, how the committee had humbly accepted his criticism and exclaimed that there was a capable person in the exploration team. In the end, even the proposal for the large-scale exploration adventure became his idea.

Bai Guoshi felt a bit guilty as he spoke, but seeing the girl’s radiant smile and the look of admiration in her eyes, he couldn’t help but continue his tall tales.

When he had said enough, Bai Guoshi finally asked, “What did you need me for this morning?”

“I received my transfer orders first thing in the morning. I still have a lot of things stored at the IT department and wanted to ask for your help moving them.”

“Of course, of course, I’ll go right now,” Bai Guoshi eagerly volunteered.

The next day, all personnel, including the newcomers, were reassigned to new teams to balance their strengths. They adopted a veteran-mentoring-rookie training model. Since the upcoming mission was to follow the main expedition on a circumnavigation of the island, the direct demands on the team members’ skills were not as high, giving the exploration team precious breathing room for training. Liu Zheng’s training plan mainly included:

1. Wilderness survival training, combining basic survival skills with lessons learned from actual missions.
2. Basic individual combat tactics, including grappling, primarily taught by members of the special reconnaissance team.
3. Basic small-unit coordination tactics, including cross-covering fire, with special emphasis on coordinating firearms and crossbows.
4. Professional knowledge in botany, zoology, mineralogy, and meteorology.
5. Seafaring adaptation training. Each team had to go to Bopu for rowing and swimming training.

After several days of training, everyone’s skills had improved significantly. Thanks to the long period of labor after D-Day, even the most otaku of nerds now had good physical fitness. With physical fitness established, what was taught was mainly technique and coordination.

Liu Zheng then led the team to places like Gaoshan Ridge and Cape Lingao for a series of practical wilderness survival training exercises in mountainous and coastal environments, even organizing a mock battle between Team A and Team B. Besides honing the skills of the newcomers, it also served to build camaraderie and boost morale.

These days, Wen Desi went to the shipyard every day to supervise the construction of their first two-masted schooner. The ship was based on the lines of the historically famous “America”: 170 tons displacement, 30 meters long, 7 meters wide, with a draft of 3 meters. It was a two-masted, fore-and-aft rigged vessel that could be operated by a crew of just nine, including the captain.

Since this was the first large ship built by the transmigrator group, it was designated “Hull 0” before its official launch and naming, signifying its status as being built from scratch.

The shipwrights from Baitu were the main workforce. Building a large Western-style ship was a new challenge for them, as it was for Wen Desi, and a test of the transmigrators’ overall industrial capacity and coordination.

Since no one had experience launching a 170-ton ship, the new-era shipbuilders opted for the safer and more reliable method of building it in a dry dock. Although it was a massive undertaking, its completion would be highly significant for the shipbuilding industry.

The dock was excavated by a combination of manual labor and machinery. It wasn’t just a pit on the shore but a semi-open structure. More than half was dug out of the beach, while the other part was enclosed by a cofferdam made of wooden piles and masonry in the sea. The walls and bottom were reinforced with bamboo-reinforced crushed stone concrete.

The water pumps for the dock were easy to solve. The transmigrator group had brought pumps with them, and modern ships like the Fengcheng were equipped with several. After the successful trial of the steam engine, using it to pump water was not a problem.

The dock gate was made of iron-framed wooden planks. A large amount of high-quality timber was used to build it, and shipbuilding caulking techniques were used to increase the watertightness between the planks. The gate was opened and closed by a winch-driven cable. To power the winch and pumps, the machine department had built a dedicated boiler and a matching 50-horsepower horizontal steam engine for the dock. Besides operating the gate, it could also power a sawmill during the day and pump water out of the dock at night—the gate’s seal wasn’t perfect.

To build Hull 0, the transmigrator group had been stockpiling resources on a large scale since before the New Year. The Ministry of Mechanical Industry set up a dedicated iron workshop at the shipyard to manufacture various iron and copper fittings for the ship. Larger metal parts were made by the metallurgical plant.

The Wenlan River handled a large amount of material transport. Bulky, heavy materials were transported downstream on rafts, while lighter ones were moved to the shipyard by two-wheeled carts, either by manpower or horses.

The shipbuilding timber came from the confiscations in Baitu village and had been thoroughly dried for several years. The wood was mostly from Fujian, as Lingao itself couldn’t provide so much large timber. Since Hull 0 was a trial product, it was mostly built with cheap firwood, except for key parts like the masts and rudder, which used ironwood. Besides timber, Baitu village also provided tung oil, hemp fibers, oyster shell ash, hemp ropes, and a large quantity of iron fittings, including four-pronged anchors. These ready-made parts greatly reduced the construction time; otherwise, the transmigrators would have been busy for months just gathering and making these things. Wen Desi often secretly congratulated himself for having occupied Baitu.

The shipyard had an ample labor force, with the core being the villagers forcibly relocated from Baitu. They had all been involved in shipbuilding to some extent and could be put to work with minimal guidance. Wen Desi focused on training the independent artisans, led by the shipwright Zhang Jiqi, and was busy at the shipyard with him every day. Zhang Jiqi was now the chief shipwright of the shipyard. Having learned many Western shipbuilding techniques from Wen Desi, everyone was highly motivated.

In contrast, the disciples of the Lin and Lu families were somewhat anxious and clearly distracted. These two families, especially the Lin family, being a major clan, had long controlled the village administration in Baitu and held strong prestige among the Baitu immigrants. The Executive Committee was very wary of clan power and would absolutely not tolerate its existence within their direct jurisdiction. Therefore, as soon as the housing in New Baitu Village was completed, Wu De immediately began to dismantle the two families.

Lin Gonglao stood at the door of the quarantine camp office. His young face was contorted with indignation. Around him, a dozen or so of his clansmen also had gloomy expressions—they had just learned their assessment results and job assignments.

In the past few days, all male immigrants from Baitu village aged 16 and above had undergone a skills assessment. Since the Lin family were shipwrights, the assessment covered various shipbuilding skills, including carpentry, double-line work, ironwork, tin-plating, lathing, oyster shell work, finishing, carving, caulking, sail making, rope making, cable making, painting, and ink marking—basically encompassing the entirety of traditional shipbuilding arts. The content and scoring were handled by Zhang Jiqi, but he did not appear in person to avoid awkwardness. From his daily interactions, Wen Desi knew that Zhang Jiqi held a grudge against the Lin family for their past control of the village and their appropriation of most of the shipbuilding profits. As long as his concerns were alleviated, he would not be lenient with the Lin family.