Father of France

Chapter 132 Water Conservancy Investigation
Different genders lead to different upbringing environments, and thus different choices when faced with authority.

Simply put, men, having been subjected to numerous hardships by society in their normal lives, are unlikely to resist when faced with uncontrollable pressure unless their lives are threatened.

However, women are actually bolder than men when facing this kind of environment. They dare to find loopholes in the rules and exploit them, unlike men who are so cowardly.

This is also because, generally speaking, men are seen as potential dangers, while women are not. In other words, women suffer less.

Even in this purge of French traitors, although many women were exiled, the Supreme Court in Paris has so far demonstrated inconsistencies in its enforcement of the law.

The vast majority of the more than one thousand Vichy French traitors who were to be tried were men, which proves that the Supreme Court subconsciously still considered male treason as a heinous crime.

In other words, Koeman completed the exile of women right after the election; otherwise, France should have already ended its purge of women who had affairs with Germany by now.

If these women who have arrived in Algeria feel they have suffered, they can exchange their fearless courage for the still-detained French collaborators; wouldn't that just be exile turned into a death sentence?

However, Koeman did not believe that these women had the courage. It was only after this group arrived in Algeria, or more precisely, after Koeman arrived in Setif, and established the work-point system, that they truly realized that gender equality was not just talk, but was put into practice.

Koeman's intentions were good, so his execution was naturally excellent.

Even if given the same material resources, they wouldn't be able to do the work. How could they? Women can only be used like men, while men can be used like animals.

After the work-point system was established, the efficiency of the various labor brigades in Setif improved dramatically. Under the banner of equality, the men, mainly prisoners of war, became more and more like beasts.

The guards noticed that the female traitors' work efficiency was improving slowly, and with the military court enforcement team under Koman also keeping an eye on them, they began to urge the female traitors to improve their efficiency, which was actually to increase their workload.

The women began to find it unbearable and started seeking to change the situation. They soon found out the source of the oppression and discovered loopholes in two major working policies of the military tribunal.

Both are forms of labor, but a woman in an engineering labor brigade is considered a laborer. However, if she becomes a mother, the intensity of her labor will be greatly reduced, she will do less, and her treatment will be better.

This difference was less a discovery made by the female criminal investigators facing oppression, and more a loophole deliberately left by Koeman. The esteemed chief of the military court had a wealth of knowledge, and boxing was just a small part of it. He could have easily closed the loophole, but he didn't, precisely to give the woman an opportunity to exploit it.

The fact that Lefevere mentioned the recent sharp increase in the marriage rate in Setif indicates that this loophole has been discovered. The premise for the existence of the maternal role is that, for most women, the first priority is, of course, to get married.

However, it cannot be ruled out that, if a woman cannot find a suitable marriage partner and cannot endure the intensity of the work-point system, she will ultimately choose to leave her father and keep her child.

Lefebvre felt that he was learning something new every day by Koeman's side. "So the huge difference between maternity jobs and work-point systems is to increase the population?"

"Of course, and the cost is very low. It was implemented here that we encountered a bunch of exiled women."

Koeman replied with a straightforward and smug tone, "Can you imagine doing this on home soil? The French Communist Party? The Socialist Party? Even the conservative People's Republican Movement wouldn't dare to do this. Luckily, all these people were exiled before the election."

Marriage is just the beginning. Only when a family has children can they transition from a work-point system to a motherhood. Positive changes are happening, and Koman's hard work in planning has paid off.

The next day, Setif welcomed a team of water conservancy engineering experts from Paris. The team leader, Paul, came to survey Setif's terrain and prepare to build water conservancy projects in the surrounding area.

"It's hard to imagine that this is an agricultural region in North Africa." Paul exclaimed upon arriving in Setif, noting the obvious hilly and mountainous terrain.

This is mainly because France is mostly plains, with the few mountainous areas located in border regions and not primarily agricultural areas. Therefore, the fact that hilly and mountainous terrain is considered a major agricultural region is surprising.

“The water resources here are relatively abundant.” Coman thought to himself that Paul was making a fuss over nothing. Are all major agricultural areas plains? India’s main agricultural areas are still the semi-arid Punjab region.

At this point, the delegation leader Bonova appeared and explained the role of Constantine Province as Algeria's water tower, stating that in the local arid climate, terrain was no longer the biggest limiting factor.

“Finding a location for a reservoir in this terrain isn’t difficult,” Paul nodded after hearing the explanation. It wasn’t difficult at all; in fact, it was quite simple. He quickly became friends with Commander Bonova and Chief Justice Corman, and rested in the barracks amidst the sweat of the laborers.

"Mr. Paul, it's kind of you to come here. The future of the millions of residents in this area depends on you." Koman was just curious, so he asked a lot of questions about the water conservancy project. He could use those questions when needed in the future. How could he forget about the keyway reserves?
After having a couple of drinks, Paul became very talkative and shared some of his research experience. "We'll be researching the rivers here in a few days. If you're interested, you can come along without interfering with Captain Corman's work."

The Aures Mountains are the source of many rivers in northeastern Algeria and were also the stronghold of Algerian guerrillas in the 1950s and 60s.

Koeman's motivation stemmed from two main objectives: to develop the agricultural potential of the Constantine province, including the Setif region. However, another important objective was to attract a large contingent of prisoners of war to the area through irrigation projects.

With relatively little rainfall at present, many rivers are dry, presenting a good opportunity for exploration. Paul and his team of experts, escorted by French troops, began their investigation of the rivers in the Aures Mountains.

The riverbed, soaked for many years, has hardened silt into countless palm-width geometric blocks, with pebbles and broken clam shells scattered in the cracks, their edges worn away.

Climbing up the dried-up tributary, the rock strata gradually became steeper. The waterline, like a grayish-yellow bandage, wrapped around the mountainside. The rock face in the waterlogged area was riddled with holes, as if eaten by giant ants. Paul's cane occasionally struck the rock wall, the echoes sometimes deep and sometimes muffled.

At the sound of a particularly hollow echo, he squatted down and ran his fingertips along the almost invisible lines on the rock surface: "This is an old crack, gnawed by the river for thirty years."

The expedition team carefully examined the earth's veins. Every crack was a sigh from the earth's crust, and every landslide was a mountain overturning.

"Add a cannon to the nose and rocket launchers to both sides," Koman said, standing next to the Sikorsky helicopter with his hands on his hips, outlining his requirements for an attack helicopter.

He certainly didn't go to the French water conservancy experts' inspection; he had only mentioned it to get closer to them. Building reservoirs wasn't his job; his job was as a soldier.

A cannon is a must; it's one of the most iconic weapons of an attack helicopter, usually mounted in a rotating turret under the nose and fired remotely by the pilot or gunner.

Rockets provide the primary means of area destruction and suppressive fire, typically launched from rocket pods mounted on stub wings. They offer wide coverage, intense firepower, and relatively low cost.

Other weapons can wait until armed helicopters are more mature, but it would be completely unreasonable to not have machine guns and rocket launchers, since these two weapons are not that complex.

Armed helicopters have long been relatively backward in the 21st century Eastern power, and their niche seems to have been challenged by the widespread use of drones, but they are still the best weapon against guerrillas.

Following Koman's instructions, the electrician continued welding the added rocket launcher positions.

Whether it succeeds or not is another matter, the main thing is to test it. Koeman used a Sikorsky helicopter from the Setif Helicopter Squadron as a prototype for the improvement and began this experiment.

In this atmosphere of sparks and lightning, Lefebvre appeared, walked up to Coman and said, “Sir, the Constantine Military Court has notified us to attend a meeting in five days to report on the progress of standard urbanization in various regions of the Constantine Province.”

“Tell Constantine we’ve received the news,” Koman replied without hesitation. “Our project is massive, including the water conservancy project. The higher-ups won’t be too harsh on us. Just report the current situation and difficulties directly.”

Even if it's harsh, at worst Koeman can use his father's power to reverse the final outcome, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

Paul's team of water conservancy experts also obtained preliminary findings: if a reservoir were to be built on the Aures Mountains river, at least eight million tons of concrete and four hundred thousand tons of steel reinforcement would be needed for a gravity dam.

“This is no small project.” Koeman knew as soon as he heard the requirements that even Algeria, let alone Constantine Province, would not have the capacity to supply it; it would definitely require local support.

“This is a concrete dam. If we were to use an earth-rock dam, the workload would increase several dozen times,” Paul shrugged. Earth-rock dams require far more building materials than concrete dams.

Earth-rock dams have a trapezoidal cross-section and a volume much larger than concrete dams. They require a huge amount of earth and rock, but use very little concrete.

(End of this chapter)