Struggle in the Steam Age

After dealing with the matters related to his life, Lawrence began to really inspect this piece of plain that he had already controlled. Although the entire island belongs to Lawrence in terms of ownership, those colonies that were opened up before may not be willing to accept his rule in that way.

After all, those people have been here for dozens or hundreds of years, and have established a series of interests of their own. Naturally, outsiders like Lawrence would not be welcome to share their rights and wealth.

So for Lawrence, if he doesn't want to fight a civil war first, then the most important thing now is to manage this piece of land that is his foundation. Then try to find a way to unite the other settlements on the island under his command. And if you want to manage the land well, then a good plan in advance is essential.

After reviewing the information and conducting on-the-spot investigations, Lawrence spent three days figuring out the current situation of Niujiao Bay where he is now, and also has a certain estimate and judgment on the future development direction.

Looking at the entire Niujiaowan plain, if counting some small flats in the mountains, it is about 2,100 square kilometers. Although it is close to the sea, the land is not considered barren because of the rivers bringing a lot of organic matter from the upper reaches. Especially those lands one or two kilometers away from the coastline can be regarded as fertile land.

However, according to the suggestion of the agricultural church working group that arrived not long ago, only 700 square kilometers of these lands are suitable for reclamation as arable land, even with the addition of agricultural facilities such as orchards or economic forests that do not need to be built on flat land for overall reclamation The area is not recommended to exceed half of the entire plain.

But this is enough for Lawrence, because even the most optimistic estimate that the number of people who can be recruited now will not exceed 20,000, which also includes a large number of old, weak, sick and disabled who cannot do heavy physical work and need to do other things. Things for craftsmen and soldiers. On average, each can own more than 50 acres of land, which is more than 20 times the average land of Lawrence's old family in his previous life.

In addition, after the Ratmen set up camp in the cave, they also helped explore the minerals in the mountains. As a result, apart from finding a small shallow coal mine and a marble mine with a normal texture, the only valuable thing left in the mountain is a large amount of limestone.

In short, this site, like the island, is a fairly good site as a whole, at least able to develop traditional agricultural planting. But now the most fashionable industries are basically unable to develop.

Of course, these grand plans and strong careers are all things to do in the future. The most important thing now is to clear up all the unsafe factors on this plain by defeating the remaining prestige of the goblin army, and then reclaim the land that was previously reclaimed by humans.

This kind of work actually started when Lawrence led the team to the north to block the entrance and exit of the plain. For example, Knight Joseph took part of the guards and volunteers from the militia to attack the goblin tribes on the plain. The attack of cutting grass and roots, because of Nora's aerial reconnaissance before, this process was very smooth.

At the end of Lawrence's expedition, Knight Joseph had completed his attack on all the tribes on the plain. According to the telegram he sent, there are no organized goblins in the entire Oxhorn Bay Plain, and it is enough to stay vigilant and avoid being attacked by those sporadic goblins.

In addition, Fatina also sent someone to tell Lawrence that a goblin tribe of more than 300 people tried to enter the plain from the other side of the mountain through the cave group they are now in, but they were wiped out with zero casualties.

That is to say, the security problem here has basically been solved now. The passages that infiltrate here from the outside world have also been blocked. Then everyone can concentrate on building this land.

In fact, when Lawrence returned from the Ratman, he found that the previous settlement had completely turned into a large construction site, and when he returned here after completing the inspection of the territory, according to the plan, the first batch of completed buildings should be completed. Things have been successfully completed.

Of course, these first buildings will not be Lawrence's mansion. As a lord who was eager to build his territory, he would not spend his manpower and material resources on such a project that was not urgently needed now because he put efficiency first.

Therefore, at this time, the buildings standing in the center of the wooden enclosure except for a double-storey wooden building built at the beginning as an office. The newly built buildings are only warehouses, kitchens, public toilets and public bathrooms.

After all, as the first scholar in the world who proposed the theory of microbial pathogens and made great contributions to epidemiology, Lawrence naturally would not forget such problems when he established his own territory. In particular, the overall climate of Nova Sauer Island is a tropical marine climate, which is more convenient for the spread of certain infectious diseases.

Therefore, various sanitation facilities and facilities related to food hygiene will naturally be listed by him at the forefront of the construction sequence, because the history of the two worlds has told him a cruel fact, that is, if left unattended, these The mortality rate of immigrants to tropical areas is often as high as 50%.

Of course, even so, these buildings are just temporary buildings. All the houses are made of steel components purchased in the empire before to build a frame, and then the trees cut down when the farmland is restored are dismantled into planks by steam saws transported ashore to build walls and roofs, and finally mixed with asphalt Wood chips fill the gaps between the planks.

The asphalt came from a swamp not far from the sea in a beach not far away. It was discovered by the crew of the Enterprise when they were cruising. Later, some people were sent from the port to collect natural asphalt for use. construction work.

The supporting facilities inside are even more crude. The only bricks and cement are all used in the construction of septic tanks, reservoirs and kitchen stoves, so that most of the rooms have only rammed earth floors inside. . As for the furniture, there are only some tables made of leftover wood boards that have not even been peeled, and tree stumps and stones as temporary stools.

Even Lawrence's own room is no exception. The only furniture in his office that can be called cheap furniture is five or six chairs that he improvised as desks and cabinets, safes, and pieces of broken wood.

In fact, at the time of departure, many people suggested that Lawrence bring a set of furniture and decorations that fit his identity, but he rejected it. Compared with those supplies that show his status, he is more willing to use those deadweight tonnages to carry some things that are useful for developing the island.

As for identity, Lawrence believes that what can reveal one's identity should be what one does without relying on those external things. And his appearance is already recognizable enough, and he doesn't need to rely on other things to let the people remember him.

In addition to the big construction, in order to block the diseases that may be transmitted by his mosquitoes, Lawrence installed a large number of insect repellents and mosquito nets on the first batch of ships and a series of items against various mosquitoes. Avoid large-scale outbreaks of diseases such as malaria or meningitis.

However, only material preparations are definitely not perfect, so Lawrence also formulated a simple rule for everyone to follow. For example, it is not allowed to eat raw food, and it is not allowed to eat any rotten food. You must go to a designated place to defecate and defecate anywhere. Wash your hands before eating and drinking, and take a bath after working, etc. A series of hygienic rules.

Fortunately, Lawrence's previous victory gave him enough prestige, so everyone still accepted these rules. And the fact that the number of such patients is at least 90% less than that of other new colonies after the rules have been in operation for more than ten days makes everyone accept this set of even somewhat cumbersome rules from the bottom of their hearts.