After sorting out the development ideas, Shi Qinjie began to fully control the development process of the young land of New China. First, he counted the slaves he had, and there were 639 of them. Of these people, about 500 were transferred to the Coconut Tree Creek Reservoir construction site to dig the river and build the reservoir; 50 people were transferred to the vicinity of the brick kiln factory and began to slowly build a lime kiln; 50 people are responsible for transporting bricks, tiles, cement and other building materials to various construction sites; The remaining 39 remained in the main city, some in charge of logistics, while others were in the unhurried construction of brick houses.

As for the 55 overseers of the Eight Banners and some soldiers of the 101st Company of the Army, they were assigned to various construction sites to monitor and protect the slave workers.

The days went on and on, and with adequate nutrition and a reasonable intensity of labor, the slaves were not struck down by anything but sickness. By mid-to-late October 1640, only 39 people had died of falciparum malaria, and another 33 were recuperating from illness; In addition to malaria, eight people died of dysentery and two died of severe colds, but thanks to timely isolation, these two infectious diseases did not become epidemic in the Xinhuabao area. In the mining and construction industries, which had suffered large casualties in the past, not a single slave died.

In addition to the slaves, two overseers died of malaria and one soldier died from a venomous snake bite, and there were no other casualties. Overall, the mortality rate is less than 17 per cent, which seems to be within an acceptable range. It is worth noting, however, that the death rate of the 381 people who landed in the first group more than five months ago has reached a staggering 23 per cent, if slaves are counted. The mortality rate is closer to 30 per cent. It is conceivable that less than half of the first 300 slaves who will reach the end of their service by May next year will be able to return to South Africa alive.

It can be said that every step of development and every achievement of the New China Colony is based on the bones of the slaves of the Eight Banners. They paid a huge price for the development of this wild tropical land.

Thanks to the hard work of the slaves, the Coconut Tree Creek Reservoir project, which is vital to the Xinhuabao area, was finally completed before the rainy season fell. The reservoir is about 500 meters long, more than 200 meters wide, with an average depth of about 5 meters, and an actual water storage capacity of more than 500,000 cubic meters, which can complete the task of irrigating 10,000 mu of paddy fields in the dry season. Of course, in practice, the upstream of the reservoir will also be replenished by river water. Coupled with the average monthly precipitation of 15-30 mm in the dry season, basically the problem of irrigating 15,000 to 20,000 mu of paddy fields is not very big.

The important parts of the embankment of the Coconut Tree Creek Reservoir are made of stone and red bricks, which are relatively strong. There is even a wooden sluice downstream to control the water level of the reservoir. Many trees have also been transplanted along the banks of the reservoir to reduce soil erosion and prevent silting up the sluice gates.

After the vast majority of manpower was mobilized to repair the Coconut Tree Creek Reservoir. Other projects have inevitably suffered somewhat. For example, the construction of lime kilns has only just entered the final stage. It is expected that it will take a few days to be almost completed, and the cement kiln is not even a shadow yet.

The construction progress of the main urban area is not very good, and the number of brick houses has reached more than 30. There were two large halls and dormitories, which were used for the slaves, and they finally got rid of the simple and damp shacks and moved into new houses. On the periphery of all these buildings, the slaves also erected a wooden fence with a circumference of several hundred meters. It was used as a defense facility for the entire city. As for the formal brick wall, it is only getting started. It's only a few dozen meters to build, and it's still early to be completed. Perhaps when the rainy season comes, the slaves will have to rush to work in order to repair the walls as soon as possible.

There was a sporadic light rain in the sky, and Shi Qinjie walked around the city with an oilcloth umbrella, followed by several army soldiers led by Shou Daoshi. Shi Qinjie enjoyed this feeling very much, it was like inspecting his own territory, especially since this territory was originally an uninhabitable and wild land, but now it has the prototype of a city, which can initially provide thousands of people to live. In this contrast, his sense of accomplishment as a creator will be particularly strong.

The group walked to the logging camp in the west of the city. Under the huge canopy in the camp, stacks of precious wood such as black sandalwood, red sandalwood (red iron dalwood), and ebony were piled up, and Shi Qinjie looked at it from afar, and he was afraid that there must be hundreds. These trees are dense, hard, corrosion-resistant, and insect-resistant, and are extremely rare and precious wood in later generations, and are widely used in high-end furniture, musical instruments, tools, shipbuilding and other fields.

But in the new Chinese colony at this moment, these precious trees are very common, as long as you have enough manpower, there are mountains and fields, you can cut them down. With these trees, the cost of the native shipbuilding industry will plummet, because you will no longer have to spend money on expensive ship materials, all you need to pay is some shipping costs and the living expenses of slaves.

"When the convoy comes in at the end of the month, they can bring the trees back to South Africa, and then find a way to bring them back to the mainland to dry or dry. The guys in the shipyard were probably crazy when they saw these trees, although it is not clear whether these timbers are suitable for building warships, but it is estimated that it is not a big problem to use them to build merchant ships. Hehe, using red sandalwood to build a ship, this is really extravagant. Shi Qinjie looked at these timbers and said with a smile: "With these timbers, I can be more confident when I go back to ask for people and things from China." Well, the next step is to get more people in the logging camp, Kyle, and you're going to have to get this done. ”

"Captain......" Kyle said with a grimace, "I was about to report something to you, I think we might be in trouble." ”

"Huh? How so? Shi Qinjie was stunned and hurriedly asked. In the context of the East Coast, the word "trouble" usually means "trade frictions", "border wars" and other serious events, and it is not a pleasant thing to hear at this time.

"That's right." "Three more slaves were missing from the logging team this morning. ”

"What is the reason?" Shi Qinjie asked with a solemn face. If he remembered correctly, this disappearance was the second time that a slave had disappeared in the New China Colony. The last time was in July, when four slaves disappeared near what is now a small brick kiln. After the disappearance, Shou Daoist thought that these people were likely to have escaped, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

"I'm not sure yet." Kyle said, "But I'm inclined to think that they were attacked by barbarians and killed or kidnapped. Because we found a pool of blood at the scene, and these things - a couple of iron arrowheads. ”

Shi Qinjie took the arrow from Kyle's hand and looked at it carefully, it seemed to be an arrow made of pig iron, the production process was relatively rough, but the polishing was very sharp, and it could be seen that the user already had a certain level of smelting and processing iron.

"Logging has been suspended for the past few days, and all the personnel have withdrawn to the city to help the construction team repair the walls. Respond to the changes first, and at the same time take a closer look to see who is targeting us. Shi Qinjie thought about it and then commanded. At present, the strength of the new Chinese colony is limited, and it is impossible to conduct a careful combing of this place. Besides, this area stretches over large areas of primeval forest, and is blocked by mountains, so it is not so easy to find anyone hiding in it. Therefore, at this time, the battle line can only be contracted, so as to concentrate the limited forces and try to avoid the recurrence of such incidents.

"Also, tell the slaves about it. Be careful when letting them work in the field, try not to act alone at ordinary times, and call for warnings immediately if they encounter any situation. Shi Qinjie continued to command.

"This ...... Would it cause panic among the slaves if they knew about it? That would be a problem. Sergeant Kyle hesitated.

"Tell them." Shi Qinjie said undoubtedly, "The situation here is special, if there are really any enemies to attack, we still have to rely on them to fight with us, they have the right to know the truth of the Dao." Of course, you can think about the specific words, try to be tactful, and at the same time do a good job of psychological counseling, so as not to cause them to panic too much. ”

Although Sergeant Kyle was a little slanderous about Shi Qinjie's ways, he didn't trust those honest slaves at all, but who called them "nobles", the highest commander here, although he was reluctant, he had no choice but to obey orders at the moment.

After another round around the logging camp, Shi Qinjie rushed back to the city with an umbrella. After knowing that someone had malicious intentions towards Xinhuabao, Shi Qinjie began to have a sense of urgency in his heart, and he vaguely felt that perhaps the peaceful years that Xinhuabao had lasted for several months were coming to an end.

"Speed up the construction of the city walls." Shi Qinjie propped up the umbrella on the ground, walked to the node diagram hanging on the wall and looked at it, and then said: "After the completion of the Coconut Tree Creek Reservoir project, the sword hanging over our heads has finally fallen, and now we have no other big projects. So it's just right, I'll adjust it to 400 ...... tomorrow No, 500 people came to repair the city wall, in sections! Be sure to speed it up! I don't care if it rains or not, even if I get a knife, I'll have to build the wall. Alright, Daoist Shou, you go and give me the order now. ”

Shou Daoist saluted, and then went out to make arrangements. The first thing he had to do was to find someone to make some shelters on the construction site of the city wall, although the main workers were slaves, but they could not be allowed to work in too bad conditions, after all, they were also important "property" of today's Xinhua Colony. (To be continued......)