Rural Construction

  While the assault camp is intensifying its training, various constructions in Zhushan Town are also proceeding with great momentum.

  Mrs. Zhang invited a hydroelectric expert from Wuhan, and after surveying and organizing the peasants to work on it, a small hydropower station with an installed capacity of 200 kilowatts was built near Zhushan Town. The Matieling area around Zhushan Town has abundant rainfall throughout the year, ensuring sufficient water resources. Part of the electricity generated by the power plant was sent to the mining area on the mountain for various living activities, saving a large amount of diesel fuel for power generation. Another part of the electricity was sent to Zhushan Town for production and living use by the residents. At that time, using electric lights in households was still a very luxurious thing, only the military camps of the shock troops could afford it. However, most of the residents of Zhushan Town were already very happy about this, as they had never seen an electric light before.

  With electricity, irrigation can be carried out. There are thousands of acres of wasteland around Zhushan Town, all of which were abandoned due to lack of irrigation. Luo Yi asked the farmers to build a dam on the small river at the edge of the town to form a small reservoir, and then use a water pump to draw water onto the wasteland, thus solving the problem of agricultural water use. These wastelands were quickly opened up and became arable land.

  Luo Yi allocated the newly opened arable land to the surrounding peasants for cultivation, requiring them to pay 100 kilograms of grain per mu to the shock troops as rent. This undertaking was warmly supported by the peasants, because after paying 100 kilograms of grain, they could still leave a considerable amount of grain. At this time, it was winter, and the peasants had sown red flower grass seeds in the fields, waiting for them to grow out as green manure next year.

  To solve the meat supply problem of the assault camp, Luo Yi developed a large number of "breeding professional households" among the villagers and asked them to help raise pigs, chickens and fish. The mountain is not short of pig grass and small fruits, insects and other chicken feed, and the cost of raising pigs and chickens by farmers is very low. Once the pigs and chickens grow up, the assault camp will buy them all. This has also become an important channel for farmers to increase their income.

  Using the sewing machines, electric saws and machine tools purchased from Wuhan, Luo Yi built garment factories, wood product factories and machinery repair factories in Zhushan Town. Through the introduction of Wang Dewei, the principal of Tongzhou Primary School, Luo Yi invited several technicians from outside the mountain to serve as technical directors of each factory. There were not many cultured farmers in Zhushan Town, so Lü Jia Lin spent a lot of effort selecting some young people who looked clever and had some talent from among the farmers who signed up to work in the factories as apprentices.

  Each family's factory orders are temporarily fine, and the garment factory can not only make military uniforms and bedding for the assault camp, but also provide ready-made clothes for the town residents, which is more neat and durable than the handmade clothes of each household, so it has been welcomed by many townspeople.

  The biggest sensation caused by the clothing factory was that it only recruited female workers when hiring. Even the brave and daring girls from the mountains were intimidated by such a recruitment poster, and they all pushed each other around, with no one daring to take the lead. In the end, Luo Yi had to send Zeng Shan and Yuan Jing to do the work. Zeng Shan had already made friends with a group of girls in the town, and she pulled them to the registration site, and on the condition that she would also go into the factory with them, they pressed their handprints on the recruitment contract. Yuan Jing fully demonstrated her skills in propaganda and mobilization, lecturing every girl she met, and as a result, she actually recruited many people.

  With the pioneers, it's easier afterwards. After the first 10 female workers wearing blue uniforms paraded through Zhushan Town, girls from every household were moved and invited their friends to become workers too.

  "When recruiting workers, pay attention to selecting a few good-looking ones..." Luo Yi said to Le Jialin.

  Le Jialin didn't react in time: "Why?"

  "You're stupid, none of you are married yet. In the future, take a trip to the garment factory and dress up nicely, who wouldn't want to marry an official?"

  Luo Zhi's family laughed and said: "Luo Zi thought it through thoroughly, are you also planning to find one?"

  "This is a bit tricky, I also have a childhood bride arranged by my parents."

  The wood factory's initial business was to make various furniture and other equipment for the Assault Camp and the mines. Just the training equipment used on the Assault Camp's training ground kept the carpenters busy for several months, of course, Luo Yi was also exhausted to death. Some training equipment invented later were not even seen by veterans like Xu Liangqing, and had to be drawn by Luo Yi with a pen and explained in detail to the carpenters.

  On the top of Ma Tieling, there were giant trees as thick as a hug, and at that time, there was no constraint like forest law. When using wood, just go up the mountain to cut it down. Luo Yi looked at those logs being transported from the mountain one by one, feeling a bit guilty for destroying the ecological environment. However, thinking again, even if he didn't go to cut them down, these trees would still be difficult to escape their fate of being cut down in the future. Later generations of Luo Yi came to this area to play, and most of the mountains were newly planted with trees.

  The main business of the machine repair factory is to repair some damaged tools for the mine and develop new ones. The whole factory currently has only two machine tools, but Luo Yi let Le Jialin recruit a dozen young apprentices at one go. The two technicians who came from Nanchang were paid twice their previous salary, so they were very motivated. Luo Yi's requirement for them is to cultivate people first, production second, and the most important thing is to quickly train Zhu Shan Town's first batch of mechanical workers.

  Luo Yi had an idea in his mind. Although the gold mine on the mountain made money quickly, there would always be a time when it was depleted, and due to environmental constraints, production could not be infinitely expanded. There were still many places where the future assault camp needed money, and only by developing industry could sustainable growth be achieved. He always thought of the manufacturing industries that flourished in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, which were inexhaustible and endless gold mines.

  The civilian elementary school in the town was formally established, teaching children during the day and running literacy classes for adults at night. The school not only waived tuition fees but also provided free stationery. The Ma Tieling area has a radius of several tens of miles, and some children from distant villages find it inconvenient to commute to and from school, so Luo Yi built more than a dozen student dormitories and invited several kind-hearted women from the town to serve as dormitory administrators, taking care of the children's daily life.

  The primary school teacher was hired from Tongzhou City, and there were several old scholars in the town who could also undertake Chinese language teaching. Yuan Jing's main job is now to assist in the training of soldiers in the shock troops, so he only occasionally comes to the primary school to give a few lessons. Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Tianyou are very supportive of Luo Yi's education. Mrs. Zhang also has a university education, so she undertakes the teaching of natural science courses. Mr. Zhang Tianyou, leaning on his staff, also came to give a few lectures. Luo Yi asked him not to talk about mining science, but to talk more about his experiences abroad, letting the children in the mountains understand the outside world and planting a seed of prosperity and strength in their hearts.

  On the day of the primary school's formal opening, Luo Yi sent someone to invite Tang Yuanpu and Wang Dewei from the county town to attend the opening ceremony. Before that, he had someone shoo away Yuan Jing and ordered that she be strictly forbidden from approaching the ceremony site. Tang Yuanpu was the Kuomintang-appointed magistrate of Tongzhou County, accompanied by a team of guards wearing the Blue Sky with a White Sun emblem on their caps. If Yuan Jing were to see this, who knows what kind of trouble would ensue? This lady's EQ was sometimes high and sometimes low; sometimes she was considerate of the bigger picture, and sometimes she just wasn't reliable. Luo Yi certainly didn't want Tang Yuanpu to find out that he had hidden a female Red Army soldier.

  The ceremony was a great success. When Tang Yuanpu, as the county head, stood on the stage to give his congratulatory speech, two students wearing "Made in Zhushan Town" school uniforms ran up to present him with flowers and performed a Young Pioneer salute. Tang Yuanpu was taken aback by this unusual ritual, and Luo Yi explained from the side: "We have the children hold their hands above their heads in salute, indicating that the people's interests are paramount. It means encouraging the children to serve the country."

  The students sang the Huangpu School Song in unison: "Xīn xīn xué zǐ, qīn ài jīng chéng, sān mín zhǔ yì shì wǒ gémìng xiān shēng. Gémìng yīng xióng, guó mín xiān fēng, zài jiē zài lèi, jì xù xiān liè chéng gōng..." This song was taught by a teacher hired from outside, and Luo Yi knew that Tang Yuanpu came from Huangpu, so he knew that doing this would make the county magistrate very happy. When Tang Yuanpu heard the song, he was indeed very excited, and after finishing his speech, he added a few more sentences, which took another ten or fifteen minutes.

  Thousands of peasants came from inside and outside the village to watch the opening ceremony of the primary school. The vast majority of them had never seen the county magistrate before, and this time they opened their eyes. Everyone thought that even the county magistrate came to give Captain Luo a boost, which means that Captain Luo is very capable. The villagers' trust in the shock brigade increased by several points.