Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 127 Infrastructure Meeting: Fist Speaks!
This venue, which has stood since the foundation stone of Happiness City was laid, has a history of more than 30 years.

Ding Yishan walked inside, his leather shoes clicking on the terrazzo floor, silently counting the number of times he had come here to attend meetings.

Maybe a hundred times, or maybe two hundred times?

Can not remember.

I only remember that during the "Great Development Period" a few years ago, meetings were as frequent as a regular meal.

Back then, the stationmaster and deputy stationmaster would meet together; he was the deputy stationmaster, and Regancar was the stationmaster.

The two of them came here almost every day. The ashtrays in the conference room were always full, and the map was covered with small red flags representing the new stronghold. In my memory, everyone's throat seemed to be hoarse.

When he took over the checkpoint, the wasteland had just entered a "rest period," the blades were sheathed, and the number of meetings gradually decreased.

Especially in the last two years, he has only needed to attend the monthly routine meeting in person, and the rest of the time he relies on the defense communication device to transmit orders directly.

Yesterday's first relocation meeting was a rare large-scale event recently, with heads of various departments in attendance, and the discussions lasted for more than four hours.

The issues are like a fishing net spread out, trying to catch everything.

The focus only began to shift to infrastructure during the first session at 9:00 AM today.

Material allocation, regional division, and production planning—what were once unrealistic ideas—have become tough nuts to crack, with each and every one of them needing to be implemented.

Originally, Ding Yishan had not planned to come.

Liu Kun wanted to secretly leave the city on business, which was one reason, but more importantly, the checkpoints never directly got involved in infrastructure matters; they were always just bystanders.

He originally intended to remain inactive until the second plenary meeting at 4 p.m., then release his proposal and make the final decision.

But now, his thinking has changed.

Since we are determined to take the lead in the construction of the outer city, we must not miss any discussion meetings.

The wall clock already pointed to 9:07, and the meeting had long since begun.

When the heavy conference room door was pushed open, there was a moment of silence inside for half a second.

Many people looked up at the sound, and when they saw that only Ding Yishan had walked in, obvious surprise appeared in their eyes.

Over the years, Ding Yishan and Liu Kun have almost always appeared together.

But today Ding Yishan was all alone, with mud specks still clinging to the hem of his trench coat from outside the city, clearly indicating that he had arrived in a hurry.

Instead of going around to greet him as usual, he went straight to the checkpoint and sat down.

He raised his head and calmly met the gazes of each participant.

Most people were expressionless, with little emotion in their eyes, including Carlo Dickinson, the bald man from the Extraordinary Faction who usually targeted checkpoints. At this moment, he was looking down at his documents and only glanced at him briefly when he looked up.

The Extraordinary Faction was targeting Liu Kun, an extraordinary individual outside their control, not the checkpoint.

As long as Liu Kun doesn't show up, Ding Yishan represents the checkpoint that follows the rules and avoids trouble, and there's no fundamental conflict between them.

However, the reactions of the few idealists were noticeably different from usual.

Yu Hong, in particular, looked up with a hint of surprise in his eyes, and after meeting Ding Yishan's gaze, he nodded slightly in acknowledgment.

"Alright, let's move on to the next topic: the choice of housing type."

Yuan Gang, the deputy city lord, did not attend the first infrastructure meeting.

Hou Rui, who was chairing the meeting, pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and his gaze swept across the room from behind the lenses.

As the most influential faction in Happiness City at present, the technology faction often argues heatedly about the technological roadmap:

Some advocate prioritizing the restoration of old-era production technologies to solidify the foundation.

Some have proposed learning from the practices of super sheltered cities like Xinghuo and Ziranli, and focusing on the research and development of source track technology.

Some have suggested trying source-attracting technology, since there are superhumans in Happiness City who could potentially capture the source for experiments.

But these disagreements never surface in the meeting room. Once inside, the tech-savvy crowd speaks with only one voice:
All decisions must be based on scientific theory; any "experience-based" advice that is not supported by data is not worthy of being on the agenda!
This is a very important consensus.

Even during the transition between old and new eras, the technological systems of the old era were not completely severed.

However, a considerable number of settlements, and even some sheltered cities, have long since deviated from their intended path.

Even today, they are still promoting theology, supernatural studies, potion studies, and ritual studies—things that are difficult for normal people to understand.

Previously, someone had promoted potion-making in Happiness City, adding mutated crystals and using living people for experiments.

I haven't heard of them since the tech-savvy group took over.

It was only after that that Happiness City truly began to develop into an industrial sanctuary and gained a firm foothold.

The projector flickered, and a chart appeared.

Hou Rui opened the folder in front of him, his fingertips tracing the pages, and said in a deep voice, "Currently, there are three options to choose from: Option A uses a traditional brick-concrete structure. Its advantage is that it uses local materials. The cement and bricks currently in the warehouse are enough to build houses for 200,000 people. However, its disadvantage is obvious: continuous rainfall will cause the concrete strength to drop sharply. As long as the rain continues, it will be difficult to spread out the construction."

"Option B uses a lightweight steel frame as the framework, covered with a waterproof membrane. This structure is fast, and a settlement can be built in three days, which is very suitable for the current rainy weather. However, the problem lies in the consumption of materials. Even if all the stock in the warehouse is pulled out, it can only meet the needs of 100,000 people. Even if the factory is operating at full capacity, it can only supply 50,000 to 100,000 people at most per week. It will take at least two to three months to absorb all the migrants. More importantly, this kind of temporary building cannot withstand the cold winter. It will have to be demolished and rebuilt into a concrete structure, or more insulation layers will be added. The cost will only increase, and in the end, it will be like throwing materials and manpower into the water."

Before Hou Rui could finish speaking about "Plan C," some people in the audience had already raised their hands.

She was Lan Ni, the Deputy Minister of the Public Works Department, one of the few women present.

"Minister Lan, please speak."

“That’s right,” Lanni stood up, “Regarding the light steel frame of Plan B, our Public Works Department just did a review and calculation overnight, and it won’t work.”

“We calculated that to build a light steel housing complex that can accommodate 500,000 people within two months, we would need at least 80 heavy pile drivers to ensure the laying of underground pipelines. But the Public Works Department only has 28 that are still in normal operation, which is less than half of the demand.”

As Lanni spoke, she flipped through the folder, "What's even more critical is that 70% of the skilled workers capable of laying underground pipelines have already died or been taken away after the Starfish Stand ended. The remaining 30% can't keep up even if they work non-stop, unless we can recruit workers from the migrants to do the pipeline laying work."

Before he could finish speaking, a series of quiet murmurs arose in the conference room.

Many people looked down at the documents in their hands, clearly not expecting the shortage of machinery and manpower to be so large.

The machinery is manageable; with people working around the clock, it can barely keep running.

However, the shortage of manpower is a real problem. Laying pipelines is hard and tiring work. It is common to kneel in the mud to connect pipes and crawl and roll in sewage.

In the past, the ability to recruit workers was entirely due to the economic model of Xingfu City. This job paid well, allowing them to buy enough nutritional supplements for their families and save up for winter supplies.

But now, with hundreds of thousands, even nearly a million migrants pouring in, the entire economic system of Happiness City has to be reshuffled.

Is there a charge for nutrient solution? How much?

Is there a fee for accommodation?
What can migrants buy with the money they earn? What changes can it bring to their lives?
Without finalizing these upper-level rules, the lower-level production model simply cannot be implemented.

"Section Chief Hou, please forgive my bluntness, but it's not that we don't want to cooperate with the technology-driven approach. It's just that the practical conditions simply don't allow it. The light steel frame looks fast, but most of the areas designated for the outer city are sandy soil. Rainwater soaks through it, making it impossible to build a solid foundation. When winter comes, the frozen soil freezes and thaws repeatedly, and the houses will inevitably collapse. At that time, let alone emergency measures, I'm afraid there will be even bigger chaos!"

"Okay, I will write it down."

Hou Rui took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling slightly, and drew a star with the tip of his pen to mark the shortage of machinery and manpower proposed by the Public Works Department.

They are completely unfamiliar with the field; they can study technological iterations, but they know nothing about building things outside the field.

Since the Public Works Department has said so, we have to find a way to solve the problem.

"Continue, there's another C model, which uses a brick and stone structure. Although the four large brick factories in the industrial zone have stopped production in recent years, the kilns, brick molds, and other equipment are still there. With some maintenance, they should be able to restart."

"Based on the old production capacity of the brick factories, the daily output of each production line is about 250,000 bricks. The maximum reduction in production capacity should be able to reach 300,000 to 400,000 bricks. If all four brick factories are operating at full capacity, theoretically they can provide enough housing materials for about 100,000 people in a week. Has the Public Works Department verified this data?"

"I've verified it, and there are no problems. This is what I wanted to say: the brick arch with soil covering for waterproofing is actually the optimal solution at present. By utilizing the natural load-bearing capacity of the brick arch structure and combining it with an outer layer of soil covering for waterproofing, we can completely get rid of the dependence on cement and steel frames, making it extremely suitable for the current rainy weather."

Hou Rui pushed up his glasses, a glimmer of hope appearing in his eyes behind the lenses: "Explain in detail."

"it is good!"

Lanni replaced the memory card with the Public Works Department's memory card, which displayed the prepared images.

Pointing a laser pointer at a cross-sectional diagram, the speaker explained, "First, there's the masonry technique. The brick arch uses a dry-laying method, without concrete grouting, relying entirely on the interlocking force between the bricks. In this way, rainwater at most wets the surface of the bricks, without affecting the stability of the masonry at all. In fact, light rain is even better, as we can use clay mortar for grouting, and the rainwater helps the clay solidify faster, making the gaps tighter."

"Secondly, there's the construction schedule. The backfilling process can be done after the rain when the soil is slightly damp. At this time, the soil has the best cohesion, so it's less likely to crack when laid down, and it also saves us the step of manually watering. In other words, continuous rainfall is not an obstacle, but can actually save us half of the maintenance work."

"It also has practical applications."

Everyone's eyes lit up as they listened quietly to Lan Ni's explanation: "The soil covering layer itself is a natural heat insulation and sound insulation layer. It can block the cold wind in winter and the heat in summer, making it much more comfortable to live in than a light steel house. Moreover, the waterproof performance of this structure is actually better than that of ordinary brick and concrete. Rainwater will flow away along the slope of the soil covering layer and will not seep into the arch at all."

At this point, she changed the subject and became more sincere: "The only drawback is that the construction speed is indeed slow. Dry-laid brick arches require skilled craftsmen to control the curvature and interlocking precision, unlike light steel which can be operated by a mechanized assembly line. But as long as we can do a good job of training and standardize the arch formwork, we should be able to catch up with the schedule."

"Do a good job of training?"

Zhao Kai, the head of the Human Resources Department sitting in the back row, suddenly shook his head. "Minister Lan, as far as I know, brick arch construction requires a high level of experience from the craftsmen, right? I have seen in the documents that a skilled arch mason can advance only one or two meters of arch length per day at most. Do you think 'doing a good job in training' is just empty words?"

The Public Works Department is only responsible for formulating plans; when it comes to actually implementing training, the burden falls on the Human Resources Department.

Modern architecture is dominated by reinforced concrete, and the craft of "arch builders" has almost lost its lineage. The cost of training them is higher than training a hundred ordinary construction workers.

“Nobody in the city knows the technology you’re talking about,” Zhao Kai said, not even bothering to open the folder. “Even if we had the information, we’d have to organize a group of people to study it thoroughly before teaching anyone else. We’d also have to take all sorts of risks, like the students not learning it properly during construction. Do you think that’s suitable for the current situation?”

"This is already the optimal solution that the Public Works Department has found."

Lan Ni slammed her hand on the table. "If you're not even willing to organize people to study, what are you going to do? Do you expect me, the deputy minister of the Public Works Department, to lead the way in laying bricks for you?"

"Heh, I'm just explaining to everyone what you mean by 'shortcomings'," Zhao Kai said slowly, adjusting his cuffs. "Getting impatient?"

"Me, in a hurry?" Lan Ni sneered. "Since last year, in which issue of the Human Resources Department have you submitted workers who have actually met our requirements? How many times have you said these things in meetings? You used to just coast along, but bringing it up now really hits a nerve."

"Meet the requirements?" Zhao Kai also got angry and stood up abruptly. "What kind of ridiculous requirements does your Public Works Department give? They require workers to be under 25 years old and have 5 to 10 years of skilled experience. Do you think your workers have been practicing their skills since birth? Also, why do workers over 35 years old, whose skills are just as good, earn 10% less than younger workers? Every time this kind of nonsense happens, I'm the one who has to clean up the mess."

"Bullshit!" Lan Ni's face instantly turned red. "Those old workers you pushed over, they talk a good game, but their skills are terrible. For the past half month, the buffer zone pipes have burst, and I, the minister, have to personally go to their homes to ask them to repair it in the middle of the night. Do you think I paid them high wages just to show that the Public Works Department is a sucker?"

"What do you mean?"

Zhao Kai took a half-step forward from the table. "Many people can't even get six hours of rest a day, and you want them to work overtime in the middle of the night? Are you trying to drive these people to their deaths?"

The meeting room erupted in chaos.

They started arguing again!
In the past, the Public Works Department complained that the people recruited by the Human Resources Department were either too inexperienced or too shrewd, while the Human Resources Department complained that the Public Works Department's requirements were out of touch with reality. Coupled with old conflicts over the salary system and performance evaluation standards, they were like a pile of dry tinder, just waiting for a spark.

And this construction of the outer city was precisely the spark that ignited everything.

"Enough!" Hou Rui slammed his hand on the table, his gold-rimmed glasses sliding down to the tip of his nose. "Is this the time to argue about this? What we need are solutions, ways to resolve problems, not this blame-shifting!" But Zhao Kai and Lan Ni didn't listen to him at all.

Zhao Kai, in particular, suddenly turned his head, the veins on his neck throbbing: "Get out of here! I've had enough of your conciliatory face! How can the plan be implemented if you don't explain yourself clearly? Who the hell is shifting the blame here?"

"Then how do you solve it?"

Hou Rui's voice suddenly rose, his body slightly lifted off the ground, his feet hovering half an inch above the ground, a faint white light surging around him, and his intimidating aura spread out like invisible waves.

But the next second, a deep voice, like a boulder thrown into a wave, instantly suppressed all the commotion:
"Hou Rui, calm down."

Turning my head, I saw that Carlo Dickinson of the Extraordinary had stood up at some point.

On that shiny bald head, mysterious blue-gold patterns were slowly spreading across the skin, as if something alive was flowing beneath the skin.

His originally cloudy pupils now glowed faintly, and the air seemed to freeze wherever his gaze swept over them.

The Human Resources Department is a subordinate faction of the Extraordinary Faction, so naturally it wouldn't allow Hou Rui to take matters into its own hands.

If the tech-savvy people really make a move here, where will the supernatural faction put its face?
"What, you want to teach me how to do things?"

Hou Rui slowly turned around and his gaze met Carlo Dickinson's.

An invisible aura rapidly gathered between the two, like two thunderclouds compressed to their limit.

All the pent-up anger from yesterday's meeting, all the pent-up dissatisfaction stemming from ideological conflicts, and the influence of the extraordinary individual's unique obsession...
No one called for a start, and no one set any rules.

boom.

A piercing explosion suddenly tore through the air, and the two figures disappeared from the venue like two afterimages.

The thick gray brick wall collapsed instantly, revealing two large, irregular holes. Broken bricks and cement chunks poured down like a waterfall, creating a scene far more dramatic than when Liu Kun flew out last time.

Immediately afterwards, a thunderous explosion rang out outside the meeting room, making the glass of the entire conference room vibrate.

Almost simultaneously, a translucent light blue protective shield suddenly rose from the ground, completely enveloping the entire venue.

The source rail barrier brought back from the fire not only isolated it from outside prying eyes, but also firmly bound all shocks and sounds within the barrier, so as not to affect the ordinary people in the inner city.

The people who were still in the meeting were stunned at first, and then they rushed to the hole and the window, peeking nervously out from the edge.

On the open ground outside the venue, two figures were colliding and intersecting at a speed that was difficult to detect with the naked eye.

Hou Rui was enveloped in a silvery-white energy flow, and each punch he threw was accompanied by a sharp whistling sound that tore through the air.

The moment the fist collided with Carlo, a ring-shaped shockwave could even be seen formed by the energy impact.

Carlo, on the other hand, had a completely different style. He didn't emit any external energy, but his body could twist like liquid metal. Several times, Hou Rui's fist was clearly close to his face, but it just grazed past him at a strangely twisted angle.

boom.

It was another head-on collision, and the two slid back several meters.

"You reckless brute who only knows how to solve problems with your fists, die!"

"Get out of here, you idiots whose brains have been ruined by technology!"

The two roared and charged at each other again.

But as soon as they finished speaking, under everyone's gaze, two human-shaped trenches suddenly split open in the ground outside the venue, perfectly covering the shadows of the two people.

Boom!
A terrifying pressure descended from the sky, like an invisible giant hand slamming into the ground.

The two were pinned to the ground, spread out in a "T" shape, their foreheads pressed against the cold cement floor, unable to even raise their heads in resistance.

A detached voice came from somewhere, yet it clearly penetrated everyone's ears:

"okay."

Yes, it's Yuan Gang!
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Yuan Gang, dressed as a schoolteacher, descending from the sky, floating lightly in mid-air as if he were not bound by gravity.

There was no energy flow, no unusual light, and not even the hem of the garment swayed violently, like a fallen leaf that might fall to the ground at any moment.

But Hou Rui and Carlo on the ground were crushed by that invisible pressure, their bones creaking.

He could only lie there in humiliation, his eyes fixed on the other person out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn't move a single finger.

Yuan Gang landed slowly on the ground, his cloth shoes stepping into the puddles without splashing a single drop of water.

His gaze swept over the two of them in turn. "Any more questions?"

Hou Rui gritted his teeth and let out a muffled groan, while Carlo turned his head away and clenched his fists tightly.

But in the end, both of them shook their heads.

The invisible pressure vanished instantly.

The two scrambled to their feet, and under Yuan Gang's indifferent gaze, neither spoke again. They lowered their heads and walked back towards the main entrance of the venue.

Soon, the conference room door was pushed open.

Yuan Gang walked in the middle, while Hou Rui and Carlo followed on either side with their heads down, like two children who had done something wrong.

The crowd that had just been peering through the holes and windows to watch the spectacle had already swiftly returned to their chairs, backs ramrod straight, faces serious, as if nothing had happened.

Yuan Gang walked to the empty seat next to the head of the table and sat down. Without looking at anyone, he simply said, "Continue the meeting."

No one dared to answer the call.

Lan Ni and Zhao Kai, like the little chicken, even managed a slight smile when they saw each other.

"Let's continue with the discussion of building structure."

Hou Rui took a deep breath, his voice somewhat stiff, and said, word by word, "Three options have been proposed. Let's vote."

"Option A, a traditional brick and concrete structure, please raise your hand if you agree!"

The room was deathly silent; no one raised their hand.

Plan B

Still, no one raised their hand.

If you raise your hand to propose a solution that has already been rejected, you might get into trouble if Hou Rui sends you a mess to clean up the mess.

What about Option C?

The situation remains the same; even Lanni, who proposed the solution, dares not raise her hand to take responsibility.

Because Zhao Kai was right, brick arches are indeed very difficult to build, and with Happiness City's current capabilities, it would be very difficult to train a group of skilled craftsmen!
Moreover, this is not child's play; it involves taking responsibility for the livelihoods of 500,000 to 1 million people.

If anything goes wrong, they're not superhumans; if they fly out of here, they're unlikely to survive.

"Can't you even decide on the style of the house?"

Yuan Gang suddenly spoke up, looking at Hou Rui, "The buffer zone had quite a few people at the beginning, how did it get built from scratch?"

"Yes," Hou Rui was startled, instinctively wanting to speak, his eyes involuntarily drifting towards Ding Yishan.

"Ding Yishan, what are you saying?" Yuan Gang turned his gaze over.

Instantly, everyone's eyes turned to him, their expressions filled with complex emotions.

In their view, Ding Yishan should regret it. He could have hidden at the checkpoint and waited for the afternoon plenary meeting before showing up, but instead he insisted on joining in the excitement of this infrastructure meeting.

Now things are really messed up. Yuan Gang is calling out names himself, and Liu Kun isn't there to smooth things over. If he says something wrong and offends the deputy city lord, he might be in deep trouble.

But to everyone's surprise, Ding Yishan showed no sign of tension. Instead, a smile slowly appeared on his face, a smile they hadn't seen here in a long time.

"The buffer zone was built by Cheng Wu, the station chief. He set an example by leading his people to build it brick by brick."

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly throughout the conference room. "Back then, there was no machinery, no blueprints, and not even enough tools and materials. Most of the old buildings we inherited were dilapidated. Station Chief Cheng led the residents to use stone rollers to compact the foundations and to use yellow mud mixed with straw ash as cement to build and repair the structures. They collected materials from the city ruins. Even though the shantytown looks terrible today, and even though the underground pipe network needs to be repaired every now and then, the main structure is still in normal use."

程武
Someone in the venue couldn't help but gasp.

Just as the name Cheng Long was taboo at the checkpoint, the name Cheng Wu was taboo in the inner city.

No one dared to bring it up, because Cheng Wu's departure back then had brought enormous trouble to Happiness City.

It took several extraordinary individuals to die before the mess could be cleaned up.

Yuan Gang's expression remained unchanged, and he nodded slightly. "It was Cheng Wu who led the people to build it before. Now that you are the station chief, tell me, which type should we choose?"

"I don't know," Ding Yishan answered readily.

"do not know?"

Yuan Gang repeated himself, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly, seemingly very dissatisfied with the answer.

But soon, as Ding Yishan spoke again, his expression changed slightly.

"Yes, I don't know who can be responsible for the plan."

Ding Yishan stood up slightly, looking coldly at Hou Rui, "Section Chief Hou, can your Industrial Administration take responsibility for option B?"

Hou Rui paused for a moment, his expression calm, and remained silent.

responsible?

Material shortages for lightweight steel frames, maintenance, winter hardening modifications, and material expenditures—any one of these could cause problems with the entire Industrial Administration's cash flow. How could he dare to take on such a responsibility?

Ding Yishan ignored him and turned to Lan Ni and Zhao Kai, his voice devoid of any warmth: "Minister Lan, Minister Zhao, if we choose Option C, can your Public Works Department and Human Resources Department take responsibility?"

The two of them lowered their heads at the same time, as if they hadn't heard anything at all.

Craftsman training, brick supply, construction delays—any one of these issues could be incredibly difficult for them, and no one dared to take on this hot potato.

Ding Yishan slowly sat down, the chair emitting a muffled groan.

He looked up at Yuan Gang, who was in the main seat, and said in a calm tone that was almost mocking, "Deputy City Lord, since no one has intended to take responsibility from beginning to end, what's the point of us discussing the plan here?"

"Is it for peace of mind, or... does it matter if all the migrants outside die?"

　P.S.: 7k words delivered this evening~ Thank you readers for your monthly votes~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)