Father of France

Chapter 129 Work Point System

The Governor's Office has received the standard urbanization design plans forwarded from Paris. There are four versions of each, but they are basically the same. They plan to replicate them in the numerous settlements in the three overseas departments.

With the riots just over, the relocation of local Arabs has begun, backed by the military. Currently, the total number of French troops in Algeria exceeds 300,000, which is quite a large number now that the world war has ended.

The number of French troops in Algeria was greater than the number of French troops stationed in Germany, and also exceeded the number of troops in mainland France.

However, Coman knew that this number was not constant and that the situation in French Indochina was also uncertain. France had a limited population, and if a war in French Indochina required reinforcements, then the troop strength in North Africa would decrease.

However, there is now a sufficient labor force available, and under the supervision of the French military command in Algeria, the construction of standardized towns has begun.

Coman's destination was the Constantine department, where French immigrants previously made up one-fifth of the total population, a lower proportion than the other two departments.

This is why the province of Constantinople was the hardest hit during the Victory Day uprising, and naturally, it received special attention from the French army. General Dracon said that the French army killed 120,000 uprising members, which was the main point he was referring to.

The province of Constantinople was also a major settlement for Maronite Christian immigrants.

Coman's destination was Setif in the Constantine province, the epicenter of the Victory Day uprising, which was later almost completely razed to the ground by the arriving French troops.

Seychelles is currently a town that is being prioritized for reconstruction. It has 20,000 German prisoners of war and 5,000 exiled French residents. The road to Seychelles is not easy to travel. According to the French military command's plan, roads will be built to connect towns with populations of more than 20,000 in the three provinces.

Koeman immediately understood what he meant. In other words, French Algeria would have a village-to-village road construction project, which would facilitate the French military's control in North Africa and enable them to respond quickly to threats.

"Setteve is an important agricultural region in the Constantine department, with good basic conditions." Coleman led thousands of German prisoners of war on foot toward Setteve, but he was traveling by vehicle. How could a glorious French soldier be treated like a guarded German prisoner of war?

In fact, the basic conditions in the Constantine Province are quite good. Setif is an important grain-growing region, while the Cabiria Mountains and coastal areas grow grapes, citrus fruits, olives, and figs.

Algeria also has iron ore mines in the Constantine province, where the steel industry can be developed, as the raw materials are self-sufficient and there is no shortage of water resources.

"Sir, are we going to use this map for the reconstruction of Setif?" Lefèvre asked, holding up the extensive planning map. "It seems like a lot of work; the urban development looks bigger than many French towns."

“Of course, Algeria is a blank slate, unlike Paris where even the widest roads are difficult to navigate for military parades,” Corman replied without hesitation. “A hundred years ago, Paris was a model of urban development, but what era are we living in now? Town roads and drainage systems are far superior to what they were back then.”

Twenty kilometers from Setif, the prisoners of war carrying shovels and French soldiers with guns could be seen. The numb prisoners of war knew that new comrades had arrived when they saw the long line walking towards them, and then they lowered their heads and continued to repair the road.

In the future, bulldozers, road rollers, and cranes will roar like steel behemoths. At this moment, it is the prisoners of war who will prove their indomitable spirit of conquering nature with their own hands.

The repetitive movements had long since numbed his fingers; his rough palms were stuck to the shovel handle, and every time he bent his knuckles, a tearing, dull pain would come.

Koman's jeep sped past, kicking up dust that coated the prisoners' faces with another layer of grime.

As for the town of Setif, it resembled a construction site, with a group of people surrounding a broken-down excavator, like ants dragging a dying beetle. Their nostrils were filled with the mixed smells of dust, diesel fuel, and strong black coffee.

“There are still machines available, and the conditions aren’t so bad.” Koman reached up and touched his face, his hands clearly covered in dust; with a little more dust, he could even try farming. After entering the residential area, Koman quickly went into the garrison camp. Actually, he had originally wanted to see what the prisoners of war’s living quarters were like, and whether they were better than the concentration camp.

But in the end, they decided to reunite with their comrades first, since completing the city construction task as quickly as possible was the most important thing.

There was no welcoming ceremony; the garrison immediately convened a meeting, where the commander of the Setif garrison, Bonova, summoned the commanders to introduce Koman and discussed issues such as the progress of urban construction.

"Only eight percent? How many prisoners of war are there in Setif?" Koman was shocked after hearing this; the progress was indeed a bit slow.

“Including the prisoners of war you brought, there should be 30,000 now,” Bonova replied quickly. “The reason is that the engineering standards were too high. Actually, Algeria doesn’t have many motor vehicles now, so why build such wide roads?”

"It's probably because the road problems in the mainland are more serious, so when considering Algeria's three overseas provinces, we emphasize them," Koman replied while thinking. "There aren't many motor vehicles in the overseas provinces right now, but they certainly won't stay poor forever. Sooner or later, there will be countless vehicles on the roads."

Europe does indeed have a serious road problem, which is actually an advantage for countries whose roads are severely damaged, as they can build new ones without hesitation.

However, for countries like France where the level of damage is acceptable, only minor repairs and maintenance of existing facilities can be carried out as much as possible.

“We happen to be in charge of road construction,” the commander of another unit, Abrien, complained helplessly.

Setif is an agricultural region of Constantinople, but it still has a lot of mountainous terrain. Building roads in such geological conditions is indeed a challenge. Although the work was done by prisoners of war, it is true that the soldiers worked hard from dawn to dusk going up and down the mountains.

"We have enough prisoners of war to last us two or three years at most. We must complete the mission in Paris as soon as possible." Koeman knew it would be very difficult. There were hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war, but Algeria was too large to handle.

Urban construction alone wouldn't be that difficult, but adding facilities like roads and ports makes the workload enormous.

Koeman directly presented his Sino-Soviet combined labor reward mechanism, explaining, "A work point system can be adopted, where each worker is assigned a 'base score' based on their gender, age, physical strength, and work skills. A strong male worker might be assigned ten points, and a female worker might be assigned seven. This base score is the highest work point one can earn by completing a full day of standard work."

"This method seems good, but isn't it efficient? Or is it more effective to have soldiers guarding the troops?" Commander Bonova thought for a moment and replied, still believing that the concentration camps were more effective.

“This method does indeed make it extremely easy for people to slack off,” Koman explained with a smile. “So we should do it the other way around, using theoretical work points as the basis to fix the amount of food they get each day, and then deducting points from that base based on their daily work. This is related to the amount of food they can get each day.”

The work-point system does indeed result in a situation where anyone who shows up for work receives a base score, regardless of how much or how well they do it. This method dampens enthusiasm and easily leads to a culture of procrastination.

In theory, evaluations could also be based on the actual quantity and quality of labor performed that day, with points awarded for good performance and deducted for poor performance. This method is more reasonable, but it is more complex to implement and prone to causing conflicts.

Koeman wouldn't use either of these methods. Counting all the points would make people slack off, and having rewards and punishments could easily cause conflicts. So, deducting all the points is a good method.

The points will be deducted based on the day's base score. If you do well, you can only guarantee that you can eat your fill for the day. If you lose too much, you can only consider the triathlon.

(End of this chapter)