Last night, two people did die in Li Maozai's hard labor, but one of these two people was bitten by a poisonous snake on the construction site, and then hiccups before the medical staff arrived. The other died of pneumonia, a terminal illness that was largely incurable in this era. There are still some antibiotics that can treat pneumonia in the medicine warehouse of the Ministry of Health in Sanya, but it is obviously impossible for such a precious thing to be used on these hard laborers, and if they can't carry it after getting sick, they can only consider themselves unlucky.

Although it is not Li Maozai's responsibility to do this, according to the regulations of the labor camp, the death of hard labor must be registered, and the loss rate of each foreman is also limited, so as not to be too cruel to the oppression and punishment of hard labor by the foreman. And Li Maozai's limit has already arrived, and no matter how dead he is, he can only receive punishment.

The naturalized cadre waved his hand and said: "The system only stipulates the number of people who die of hard labor and the corresponding punishment, and does not stipulate whose fault it is...... No, it is stipulated that as long as the number of deaths exceeds the standard, the fault is the foreman's! Li Maozai, you should stop quibbling, do things according to the rules, and register yourself!"

Li Maozai was cheeky and begged for a long time, but it didn't make any difference, and in the end he could only go to the camp headquarters with his head down. According to the system of the hard labor camps, after the death quota is exceeded, the foreman who is directly responsible is also punished accordingly - for each additional person, the sentence is increased by half a month.

When Li Maozai was first arrested, he was sentenced to three years of hard labor, because of his good performance, he was promoted and at the same time he was constantly commuting his sentence by relying on labor points, so far he only had half a year left in his sentence, and he might be able to regain his freedom in four or five months. However, as soon as these two unlucky ghosts died yesterday, Li Maozai's sentence immediately had to be increased by another month, which was indeed a little difficult for him to accept. But he also knew that he was powerless to change anything, after all, the rules of this hard labor camp were clear and organized, and there was nothing to drill, and if he wanted to complain, he could only complain that these monkey slaves were too poor to withstand the toss.

Of course, this kind of complaint is not limited to Li Maozai, in fact, many grassroots foremen in the hard labor camp have been punished similarly recently, and there are many more people who have received longer sentences than Li Maozai. And this situation is naturally reflected in Qiao Zhiya, but what he is worried about is not that he cannot explain to the executive committee because the mortality rate of hard labor is too high, but that this situation will affect the overall progress of the project. After all, each batch of new laborers is not immediately sent to the construction site, and they have to go through a simple quarantine, assign jobs according to the situation, and then send them to the first-line construction site in Shiroku, the process itself takes several days, and if it is too frequent, it is easy to cause a disconnect in labor demand.

On November 7, the Portuguese transported two ships of slaves to the port of Changhua, but there were more than 500 slaves on these two ships, of which there were less than 20 black slaves, more than eighty percent of whom were captured in large numbers from the islands of South Asia, and the rest were from Indochina and the Indian Peninsula.

Qiao Zhiya refused to sign on the spot, because according to the original agreement between the two sides, at least more than 30% of the slaves transported by the Portuguese must be non-South Asian island natives, and the "goods" sent this time are obviously not in good condition.

"Don't you understand? These natives can't do anything but waste our precious food! You send these garbage goods, and have the face to ask us to collect money?" Qiao Zhiya raised his middle finger at the Portuguese captain: "You can pull these things back and use them yourself!"

Of course, the Portuguese would not be foolish enough to take these slaves away again, and euphemistically said that the price of these slaves could be reduced a little.

In the end, after some negotiation between the two sides, Haihan's side finally accepted the native slaves at half price, and agreed that the proportion of the native people in South Asia should not exceed sixty percent when the slaves were transported next time, and Qiao Zhiya finally put out the fire in a huff.

"I still have to think of another way!" Seeing the situation report sent back from the Changhua area, Tao Donglai couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Relying on them to transport these slaves is really a drop in the bucket!"

Next to him, Ning Qi answered: "The Ministry of Civil Affairs is already thinking of a way. At present, there are two main ways, the first is to absorb the Li Miao mountain people in the mountainous areas of Qiongxi and Qiongbei, so that they can leave the cottage and work for us. Another way is to migrate to the west from the area of northern Qiong, which we now occupy, and send those who have no land to Qiongxi to train as industrial workers. ”

"The second method shouldn't be so quick to come true, right?" Tao Donglai asked.

"It does take time. Ning Qi nodded and acknowledged Tao Donglai's point of view: "Most of the people in Qiongbei who are willing to move to live in our ruling area have actually moved their nests in the past two years, and most of the rest have landed and real estate in the local area, so it is not so easy to leave." Even if we complete the land clearance, the size of the population that will move to Jonesy is not optimistic. ”

Tao Donglai said meaningfully: "There are so many people on Hainan Island, moving around, after all, it is still to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall. If we want to solve the problem at the root, we still have to find a way from the mainland. ”

According to the Executive Committee's plan, after the completion of the industrial zone in Jonesey, at least tens of thousands of industrial workers will be needed to ensure that the local production capacity of steel and other metals can reach the expected level. The actual size of the population living there may be three or four times the number of workers, but the number of people living in the Changhua area is still less than 10,000, even if a few thousand slaves are included, and it is far from the expectations of the Executive Committee. Now that the onshore corridor from Changhua to Shilu is about to be completed, the countdown to the development of Shilu iron ore mine can be carried out, but the manpower gap is still a shortcoming of this mega project, and it is likely to affect the implementation progress of the project.

Although Qiongbei is a relatively concentrated area on Hainan Island, as Ning Qi said, it is still difficult to move the existing population of Qiongbei to settle in Qiongxi. Moreover, it is not advisable to use public coercive measures in this process, otherwise it is very likely to exacerbate the conflicts between Haihan and the local people over the relationship of land ownership.

Most of these immigrants come to make a living, and when they arrive on Hainan Island, there is almost no family property to speak of, where they are settled, and what kind of jobs they get are all arranged by Haihan, and these immigrants can only rely on and obey Haihan, otherwise it will be difficult for them to live on this island. Therefore, for the Executive Committee, although the process of moving in from outside the island is more troublesome and the initial cost is relatively high, in terms of long-term costs and effects, it actually has certain advantages over the immigrants on the island -- at least the proportion of them who are converted into industrial workers is much higher than that of immigrants from the island.

Of course, this task was naturally handed over to the new body of the Guangzhou Office, or to be more precise, the Guangdong Regional Management Committee.

"Old Ma, what's the urgency of calling me back in such a hurry?" He Xi stepped into the study and asked the worried Mariko.

"What else could it be, Talisman!" Mariko handed over the telegram in his hand: "A telegram from the base camp has just been sent asking us to try to expand the size of the immigration. ”

He Xi took it and spread it out and looked at it for a while, frowned and said, "The base camp is very tight this time!"

"The Shilu project is about to be put into production, and there is a shortage of labor!" "After spending so much manpower, financial and material resources on this project, the executive committee certainly hopes to give full play to 100% of the production capacity from the beginning." ”

"But where are we going to get so many people in a while?" He Xi put down the telegram and sat down on the chair opposite Mariko: "Now the migrant camp in Panyu has 1,000 to 2,000 people every month, and the executive committee has asked us to double the size of the immigrants as much as possible, where can we find the extra 1,000 or 2,000 people?"

"There is definitely nothing to be done near Guangzhou, and now the displaced people who have fled from other places do not need us to publicize, and when they enter the territory of Guangzhou Prefecture, someone will show them the way to Panyu. Marik shook his head and sighed: "It's convenient, but there are no natural disasters in Guangdong this year, and there are not many displaced people at all." ”

"Or ...... Are we artificially creating an accident?" asked He Xi following Mariko's words.

Marik glanced at He Xi and said, "How to make it?"

"Do you really want to know or are you curious to ask?" He Xi did not rush to answer, but asked him rhetorically.

"Yo, it seems that you really have a plan, so I really need to hear it. Marik thought that He Xi was just joking, but after hearing this, he straightened up: "You say come and listen, if it is really feasible, we will plan it well." ”

He Xi didn't rush to answer, but first got up and walked to the door of the study to look outside, and then said to the sentry at the door: "I'll have a meeting with Director Ma, and no one is allowed to trespass without permission." ”

"Yes!" the sentry stood upright, saluted He Xi, and then closed the door.

He Xi was so solemn, Marik could see that he was not joking, and immediately cheered up to hear what he had in mind.

He Xi sat back in his seat and explained: "After the battle in Lijiazhuang the year before last, our Ministry of Security has begun to contact the civilian armed forces in Guangdong and other places, screening some forces that can be used from them, and secretly giving them some help and support. ”

Mariko was stunned and said, "Your Ministry of Security does this kind of thing, does the Executive Committee know?"

"Of course I know, otherwise where will this cost come from?" He Xi nodded and said: "The Executive Committee has known about this practice of the Ministry of Security from the very beginning, and there is also this part of the relevant content in the annual work report to the Executive Committee. You don't have to worry about the legitimacy of this matter. ”

Mariko smiled and said, "Okay, then you go on." ”

He Xi continued: "The reason for this arrangement is to increase our intelligence sources and avoid our strongholds and personnel from being attacked by civilian forces, so as not to receive the news until Lijiazhuang was about to be hit the door like the year before last. Second, we should strive to co-opt some civilian armed forces for our use, so that we can have another solution when it is inconvenient for us to use force on our own. ”

When Mariko heard this, he already understood most of it, and nodded: "So your routine is actually a bit similar to the meaning of the Lighthouse Nation helping ** armed forces around the world?"

"This is not called a routine, this is called a work idea!" He Xiyi corrected Mariko's statement sternly: "Although your understanding is not very accurate, it is relatively close to the truth. Although we have a deep trade relationship with the Ming Dynasty, and at this stage, we must support the Ming Dynasty's dominance in the mainland region to resist the invasion of the northern boar skins, but in the long run, we came to this time and space to replace the Ming Dynasty's position in the Far East, so there is still a fundamental conflict ......of interest after all."

"Okay, Lao He, when did you start to change careers and become a political teacher, if you want to give lectures, save your saliva, just take these theories and brainwash them with Zhang Qianzhi and Gong Qiqi. Marik interrupted He Xi's tirade with a smile: "Hurry up, get down to business." ”

Mariko smiled and said, "Okay, then you go on." ”

He Xi continued: "The reason for this arrangement is to increase our intelligence sources and avoid our strongholds and personnel from being attacked by civilian forces, so as not to receive the news until Lijiazhuang was about to be hit the door like the year before last. Second, we should strive to co-opt some civilian armed forces for our use, so that we can have another solution when it is inconvenient for us to use force on our own. ”

When Mariko heard this, he already understood most of it, and nodded: "So your routine is actually a bit similar to the meaning of the Lighthouse Nation helping ** armed forces around the world?"

"This is not called a routine, this is called a work idea!" He Xiyi corrected Mariko's statement sternly: "Although your understanding is not very accurate, it is relatively close to the truth. Although we have a deep trade relationship with the Ming Dynasty, and at this stage, we must support the Ming Dynasty's dominance in the mainland region to resist the invasion of the northern boar skins, but in the long run, we came to this time and space to replace the Ming Dynasty's position in the Far East, so there is still a fundamental conflict ......of interest after all."

"Okay, Lao He, when did you start to change careers and become a political teacher, if you want to give lectures, save your saliva, just take these theories and brainwash them with Zhang Qianzhi and Gong Qiqi. Marik interrupted He Xi's tirade with a smile: "Hurry up, get down to business." ”