Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 145 Abandoned Hydropower Station, Planning for Dabo Town!
After clarifying his thoughts, Cheng Ye's goal became clear when he reviewed the document again.

Since this is only the first round of selection and not the final site selection, there is no need to rush to focus on those unconventional and special terrains to become outliers.

Even in his view, some neglected areas, if properly utilized, may have the potential to rival popular locations.

However, the core of the first few rounds of screening was clearly to judge whether the inspector's concept of "taking on all responsibilities" was practical and whether their knowledge base was solid.

Those "ingenious ideas" applied to special terrains lack supporting cases and may not be approved by the assessment team. Instead, they may be penalized for deviating from the norm.

Therefore, the optimal solution is to choose a location that is neither too popular nor too unpopular, but that can precisely showcase one's own advantages.

Cheng Ye quickly swiped his finger across the data, first crossing out the first batch of invalid options, all locations more than sixty kilometers away from Happiness City.

The reason is simple: the transportation of materials for the initial construction relied on mobile troops, but the current situation is characterized by frequent rainfall, with torrential rains that could wash away temporary roads at any time, delaying the transportation cycle, not to mention the possibility of encountering infected attacks along the way.

If the distance is too far, logistical losses alone could cripple the initial construction.

More critically, the water and electricity networks are far from the main city, which means that the power and water supply systems have to be built from scratch. This not only requires a lot of additional resources, but also multiplies the difficulty of resettling the displaced people.

For someone like him who lacks practical experience in construction, this is undoubtedly a self-imposed obstacle.

He then crossed out areas more than 60 kilometers away from the industrial zone.

Similarly, most building materials, tools and equipment need to be sourced from industrial areas. If the location is nearby, transportation efficiency is high and costs are low; if it is far away, delays may cause the construction period to stop.

With Happiness City and the Industrial Zone as the center, draw a 60-kilometer circle on each side, and the area where the two circles intersect will instantly stand out.

Cheng Ye traced a circle along the boundary with the tip of his pen and counted thirteen locations that met the criteria, which was more abundant than he had expected.

The most striking feature is an old-fashioned county town of county size.

Wenlu County.

According to records, this place was once a battlefield where superhumans fought fiercely, so most of the buildings inside have collapsed, with only a few residential building frames still standing in the ruins, and a few shops on the edge of the city still maintaining a relatively intact form.

It is worth mentioning that the underground water supply and sewage pipe network in the county may still exist, but to restart it, a huge amount of resources will be needed for repairs. Just cleaning up the silt and damage in the pipes may exhaust the initial material quota.

This is also why Happiness City has been hesitant to take over the area. After all, even the pipes in the buffer zone break down every few days, and no one is willing to gamble on such an "infrastructure black hole".

In addition, there are two towns that were once county-level towns, Changshui Town and Yunshui Town (both with a permanent population of over 100,000), and one town-level village, Dabo Town (with a population of about 30,000).

What caught Cheng Ye's attention was that there was a small hydroelectric power station in Dabo Town. Although the turbine had long been removed, the dam was intact. It must have been built to the standards of a century-old project, without any shoddy workmanship.

If the equipment can be reinstalled, it will be sufficient to support the initial power needs of the entire satellite city.

What's even better is that the reservoir formed by the dam meets water quality standards, solving both drinking water and industrial water needs—a natural "double insurance."

Of course, there was also a fatal reason why Big Wave Town became a deserted ruin.

The waterways here connect to the Linjiang River. When the Linjiang River floods, Dabo Town turns into a swamp.

After each flood, the seeds of the mutated plant are carried by the water flow and take root.

So, if you go there occasionally, you can find mutated plants that have sprouted and taken root. That's how the four white water plants that Zhang Xiaofan brought came about.

Finally, there are eight large villages in the surrounding area.

Most of the houses in these villages are still relatively intact and can barely be used for initial habitation.

However, choosing this location means taking the "demolition and reconstruction" route, first leveling the existing houses and then rebuilding them according to the plan. This adds an extra step to the process, which is suitable for experienced people with time to acquire land, but not for the current stage where quick resettlement and results are needed.

Of course, the document also notes at the end that the inspector may also choose the terrain and build from scratch.

However, Cheng Ye ignored this clause. Even if he really wanted to choose such a place, he would need to obtain the contracting qualification first and then apply to the checkpoint.

If you were to write "I want to build a skyscraper from scratch" now, you'd probably be eliminated in the first round.

Where should we choose?

After a moment's thought, Cheng Ye decided to utilize the three opportunities for off-site consultation.

This mechanism is somewhat similar to the "help-seeking segment" in the talent shows he watched before his time travel. Ostensibly, it assists in decision-making, but in reality, it tests the prosecutor's judgment, experience, and network of connections.

"Xiao Zhang, I need to make a phone call."

“Sure,” Xiao Zhang replied respectfully. “You just need to tell us who you want to consult and what your question is, and we will relay the message and record the answer.”

Can't make the call in person?

Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment, then realized that the design of this round of testing was indeed ingenious.

If you make the call yourself, you can easily ask the other party to inquire through intermediaries, thus indirectly circumventing the three-time limit.

However, as conveyed by the staff, each question has a corresponding answer, leaving no room for loopholes.

"Okay, for the first call, please call Engineer Liu from the Public Works Department."

Cheng Ye pondered for a moment and said, "Ask him about the current status of the Baishui Dam in Dabo Town. Is the dam still operational? If not, what are the resources and technical requirements for its maintenance? Ask him to explain using professional terminology."

"Yes!"

Xiao Zhang picked up the defense communication device and whispered a few instructions, without asking who Engineer Liu was. Clearly, the checkpoint had a dedicated person responsible for liaising with various departments to ensure smooth communication channels.

About ten minutes later, a piece of white paper covered with writing was handed into the venue by a staff member and presented to Cheng Ye.

By this time, many people in the venue had begun to seek help from outside, and blank sheets of paper were being passed around from time to time, making the atmosphere even more tense than before.

Seeing that Cheng Ye, the trainee prosecutor, had also successfully received a reply, many prosecutors secretly glanced at him, clearly not expecting that he had already made contact with someone in the buffer zone so soon after taking up his post.

"This is really serious. I never experienced anything like this when I was in school."

Cheng Ye unfolded the paper, which contained more than five hundred words.

As expected, Engineer Liu didn't use plain language; the entire document was filled with engineering jargon.

According to the 12th round of basic surveys in 2004, the concrete grade of the Baishui Dam is low (C25). Having been exposed to the natural environment for a long time, the carbonation depth is 3.2cm, exceeding the safety threshold by 1.1cm, requiring surface carbonization treatment. The spillway gate's opening and closing mechanism has a corrosion rate of 78%, requiring the entire gearbox to be replaced. The water conveyance tunnel has three cracks, the largest being 0.8mm wide, which need to be sealed with grout.

末尾还附了句总结：“修复至可运行状态，需C30混凝土80立方米、钢筋12t、液压启闭机1台，建议配备2名结构工程师+15名熟练技工，工期预估15天。”

If these things were given to a layperson, they certainly wouldn't be able to analyze the extent of the damage to the Baishui Dam; they could only assess the difficulty based on the final recommendations.

But Cheng Ye's observation gave him a sense of certainty.

Most village and town-level hydropower stations were built in the late 20th century, around the turn of the millennium, about a century ago.

Initially intended as a supplement to the overall power grid, it later became one of the industrial projects contracted out to foreign companies due to the rapid development of infrastructure.

It is a high-quality investment project with a large one-time investment, low rate of return, and long payback period.

However, concrete carbonation is an irreversible natural process, and even if it is well maintained after being privately contracted, the carbonation depth will slowly increase over time.

In a natural environment, the annual carbonization depth of ordinary concrete is about 0.1-0.3cm, and the cumulative carbonization over 100 years is 3.2cm. This indicates that the dam body is either in a dry, low-pollution environment or has been regularly and simply maintained over the years.

"There are signs of maintenance, and it's possible to repair it."

Cheng Ye's thoughts raced. "It seems that Happiness City was once on the agenda, but it was probably shelved due to the high resource consumption and low return rate."

This precisely demonstrates that Dabo Town is a potential powerhouse, as its water and electricity problems can be solved by repairing existing facilities, saving at least 70% of resources compared to building from scratch.

Of course, the information provided by Engineer Liu was "repair to a workable state," which would definitely not work in modern times, as it would not even pass the most basic data checks.

But in the wasteland, it's nothing. The safety redundancy of modern standards is a luxury at this moment. To repair the facilities passed down from the old era in one go is no less difficult than rebuilding them.

Of course, a bold idea flashed through Cheng Ye's mind: perhaps action points could be used to speed up the repair?
But this requires me to try it myself after obtaining the contracting qualification, and I also need to figure out how to explain the abnormal progress to the construction team, so I can only leave it for now.

"Choosing Dabo Town solves the water and electricity problems; all that's left is the transportation route."

Cheng Ye's fingers slid rapidly across the map, quickly connecting the scattered information he had heard from the scavengers, sketching out a route from Happiness City to Dabo Town in his mind.

Among the 80 inspectors present, he was the only trainee officer who had never left the outer city and could only imagine the road conditions based on secondhand information and maps.

This is both a disadvantage and an advantage.

He makes no subjective judgments based on experience, and only uses the most objective data, such as distance, terrain, and obstacles, to assess the difficulty of transportation.

When verifying a supercomputing solution, a pure data model will inevitably be used.

His idealistic analysis might actually make him stand out in supercomputing evaluations.

"Xiao Zhang, for the second call, please call Old Song in Tianyuan Community, B-7 area of ​​the buffer zone, and ask him to inquire about the difficulty of traveling from Xingfu City to Dabo Town, and to look at it from a pioneering perspective."

"Yes." Xiao Zhang quickly wrote it down and turned to give instructions.

This time the wait was exceptionally long; it took about fifteen minutes before a staff member came over carrying a thick stack of papers.

Unlike the previous single-page replies, this one was more than ten pages long, neatly bound, and stood out among the thin reply sheets.

The prosecutor sitting by the door couldn't help but look up in surprise, assuming that some high-ranking prosecutor had used powerful connections to obtain such detailed information. It wasn't until the papers were handed to Cheng Ye that the gazes cast upon him in the meeting room were tinged with astonishment.

Ding Yishan glanced at her without making a sound, a slight, almost imperceptible smile curving his lips, as if confirming her suspicions.

But Cheng Ye had no time to consider any of that at the moment. After reviewing the information he had obtained, only one thought remained in his mind:
It's true what they say, having an elder in the family is like having a treasure!

Old Song has survived from the old era to the present, and has struggled on the brink of life and death countless times. His experience is indeed unfathomable.

Not only did they understand his implied meaning (that is, to ignore the data on paper and only consider the actual risks), but they also mobilized the collective wisdom of the veteran pioneers in the community, and their response was a living map and a survival manual.

The first few pages are a breakdown of the route, detailing the risk level of each segment:
The best option is to travel along the old provincial highway out of the city. This is the main route that Xingfu City has invested in maintaining and is guarded by the Bai Gui Gang. The road surface is smooth and suitable for convoy transportation. It can take you directly to the outskirts of Dabo Town, but you need to turn onto the county road for the last 20 kilometers.

The county road is the first hurdle. The road surface has collapsed in many places, and infected and mutated beasts frequently appear. Especially in the section of road near the county town that Cheng Ye circled, namely the ruins of "Wenlu County", infected often roam around, and mutated beasts attack humans in groups.

The last 7 kilometers of rural road were even more challenging, as it was all dirt road and would inevitably become muddy and difficult to travel on rainy days.

Furthermore, if the river rises, this part will definitely be flooded, and it will be difficult to sail.

The middle pages are marked with high-risk points along the route.

The ruins of Wenlu County are the number one threat; once a county town in the old days, it has now become a breeding ground for infection.

Despite years of intensive clean-up efforts in Happiness City, new sources of infection continue to emerge.

Another risk lurks beneath the surface of the tributaries of the Linjiang River. Many sources of infection that converge from the main channel are lurking underwater, and they can easily strike human settlements around the waterways, especially during the flood season.

What's even more surprising is that the following pages contain a complete description of the specific situation within Dabo Town, which was not even mentioned in the document Cheng Ye had.

For example, the "Jiajiale Supermarket" at the west end of the town has an intact overall structure and the load-bearing walls are undamaged. After cleaning, it can accommodate at least 500 people for short-term accommodation.

For example, although the office building in the town center is damaged, its frame is sturdy and can be repaired to serve as a temporary office space. Even the water tower on the top floor can be repaired and used.

The abandoned grain depot at the east end of the town has an underground warehouse with excellent moisture protection, making it suitable for storing supplies.
Each of these pieces of information is marked with a specific time, the earliest being from April of this year, and the latest being just two days ago.

Clearly, although the residents of Tianyuan Community do not go out, they have never cut off their access to information from the outside world.

Or it came from a scavenger. Or it came from conversations with fellow workers.

This information might not be of much use normally, but it immediately became invaluable when Cheng Ye asked about it.

On the last page, Mr. Song also marked the types of infection sources that might be encountered along the way, but perhaps out of consideration for Cheng Ye's status as a prosecutor, this part was written very vaguely and did not describe the characteristics in detail. It is likely that he was afraid of showing off his skills in front of Cheng Ye in his professional field.

"Indeed, the current problem is probably the flooding."

The more Cheng Ye read, the more reassured he became, and he was not deterred by the danger in the information.

no point.

Once you leave Happiness City, the wilderness is full of dangerous places.

Those elusive sources of infection are not like zombies that can be spotted and shot from a distance. Many of them are formed through mutated creatures, water exchange, or even natural induction.

Just like the current fog, no one can say for sure how many new sources of infection this time will bring to Shijiazhuang Province.

Therefore, choosing a location for safety reasons is itself a major misconception.

What we should be considering is just how difficult it is to prevent these dangers.

"Unsurprisingly, an inspector will definitely choose Wenlu County. It is the largest county town between Xingfu City and the industrial zone. It should be rebuilt both morally and logically. As a resource transfer station, its value is even greater than that of the satellite city in front of the buffer zone."

"Therefore, I don't need to worry too much about the threat from Wenlu County. The legion forces of Xingfu City will most likely make this place their main target for sweeping. What we should really worry about is the flooding of Linjiang River and the source of infection spreading from the water system."

Cheng Ye pulled over a piece of white paper and began writing keywords on it.

[Flood Warning], [Flood Season Situation], [Riverbank Condition], [Characteristics of Underwater Infection Sources].
Life is unpredictable.

A few days ago, when Mr. Zhang talked to him about the rainfall, he was worried that Yueye Shelter might be flooded.

Now, however, he has to worry about whether the town of Dabo, which he chose, will be swallowed up by the rising water.

Should we ask again for a third chance?

Cheng Ye hesitated for a moment, then gave up. There was no room to change to other places now; within the 60-kilometer overlap, there were only so many locations to choose from.

If there are better options, it's not too late to apply for adjustments after obtaining the contracting qualification.

In addition to the threat, the difficulty of reconstruction must also be considered.

According to Mr. Song's information and data, the underground pipe network in Dabo Town has long been abandoned.

This was within his expectations; having no further thoughts about it saved him the trouble of spending time and energy on repairs later.

Moreover, it's better if it's completely rotten. Replacing the old pipeline with a new one might be easier than repairing the old one, and it can be done according to the new plan, avoiding the limitations of the old pipeline layout.

Many of the old buildings have been preserved, enough to get through the difficult early stages.

"We'll choose Big Wave Town!"

Cheng Ye breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Xiao Zhang to confirm his choice.

"Okay, Prosecutor Cheng." Xiao Zhang handed over a brown paper bag. "Please open the test questions and answer them. Also, we need to collect these materials. Would you like to look at them for a while longer, or would you like to start answering the questions now?"

It's turned into a closed-book exam?
Cheng Ye took the test bag without hesitation: "Let's begin."

Upon opening the paper bag, the test questions inside were more complex than expected, a full twenty-one major questions, all open-ended with no standard answers. For example:
The core purpose and strategic significance of choosing this location, the complementary role of the area's development prospects to the overall planning of Happiness City, the specific breakdown of short-term construction goals (3 months) and long-term development direction (1 year), and how to balance the priority of resettlement of displaced people with the construction of the defense system.
However, compared to modern tender documents, these test questions are much simpler. There is no need to precisely calculate the cost of every penny invested, nor to rack one's brains to "cut corners" in the budget to enhance competitiveness. All that is needed is to clearly explain why and how to do it.

"Prosecutor Cheng, you have eight hours to answer the questions. Please submit them before 6 PM. If you need anything during this time, just let me know," Xiao Zhang thoughtfully added.

Cheng Ye glanced at the clock in the center of the conference room; it was exactly 10:05.

Eight hours is enough for him to carefully polish the answer, and he can even draft a complete draft on the draft paper first.

The moment the pen touches the paper, thoughts surge forth like a tidal wave.

In the section for selecting a purpose, he wrote at length:

"The core value of Dabao Town lies in its 'low-cost start-up.' The restoration of the Baishui Dam can solve the immediate need for water and electricity, and existing buildings (Jiajiale Supermarket and the town government office building) can be quickly converted into resettlement and office spaces, saving at least 40% of initial resources compared to building from scratch. Its 60-kilometer location advantage allows it to both benefit from the radiation from Xingfu City and the industrial zone, and serve as an outpost for outward expansion. Its strategic significance lies in its steady and gradual expansion."

"In the short term, we can rely on the unique clay in the surrounding area to build kilns and restore brick and tile production. This will not only solve the problem of self-sufficiency in building materials but also provide employment for displaced people. In the medium term, we need to prioritize the repair of the river embankment and build two bridges along the river, one for vehicles to transport goods and the other for pedestrians, thus completely opening up a direct supply channel with the industrial zone. In the long term, we can take advantage of the riverside location to develop aquaculture and handicrafts, making it a food supplement point and light industrial hub for Xingfu City."

Regarding flood response, a three-tiered response model has been established, with manpower mobilized to reinforce riverbanks, clear drainage ditches, and open waterways to guide water flow.

"."

The writing on the draft paper became increasingly dense.

From resource allocation to personnel division of labor, from infection source prevention to improving public satisfaction, every issue is closely related to the actual situation in Dabao Town, and there is not a single empty slogan.

Li Matai, sitting next to him, seemed anxious, scratching his head and scratching his ears. He would write a few strokes and then stop and scratch his head. In particular, every time he caught a glimpse of Cheng Ye writing furiously like a wound-up toy, filling up one draft paper and then switching to another, his mouth blisters turning red from holding it in.

I was so anxious, words can't describe it.

As for the other prosecutors in the meeting room, a few senior prosecutors who were in their third or fourth term wrote fluently and had clear ideas, while a few prosecutors in their second term wrote intermittently and occasionally stopped to frown and think.

As for the first-term prosecutors, they mostly stared blankly at the test questions, writing whatever came to mind, their handwriting so messy it looked like scribbling.

Around noon, staff pushed in a food cart and distributed heated blue bags of nutrient solution.

Despite the unpleasant taste, no one complained. Most people gulped it down in a few mouthfuls, wiped their mouths, and continued answering questions.

Everyone knows that this eight-hour battle of wits may determine their fate for the next few years.

The sky outside the window remained overcast, and the rain fell intermittently, sometimes heavy and sometimes light, tapping against the glass with a soft patter. This sound mingled with the scribbling of pens on paper inside, creating a strange atmosphere of focused concentration.

Cheng Ye remained engrossed in the exam questions, pausing to think occasionally and writing furiously until golden rays streamed through the window, which he did not notice.

At 4:30 p.m., with an hour and a half left before the exam was due, he finally put down his pen and began to check his draft word by word.

Only after confirming that the logic was complete and the measures were feasible did I organize the key points into a formal answer, writing neatly.

Upon final reading, he added a sentence at the end: "The core of satellite cities is to support development, not to compete with Happy City and the industrial zone. Every step of the construction of Dabo Town should be based on the premise of providing refugees with a place to live, work, and hope, and creating a unique fishing-type handicraft satellite city."

After writing this sentence, Cheng Ye gently closed the test booklet, a sense of unprecedented peace washing over him.

Perhaps he is not an experienced prosecutor, and perhaps he has significant shortcomings in terms of force and construction, but every word in this plan embodies his most basic understanding of the satellite city construction and Dabo Town.

It's not about replicating a super sanctuary city like Happiness City, but about building a super satellite city that attracts displaced people to settle down.

"Xiao Zhang, hand in your paper!"

When the test papers were taken away, Cheng Ye subconsciously looked up at the window and froze instantly.
The sky cleared up briefly!
As the sun began to set, the orange-red sunset painted the sky with a warm golden hue, gilding the world that had been gloomy all day.

Just like his mood at this moment, the clouds have passed, but he is full of hope!

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(End of this chapter)