Struggle in the Steam Age

The members of the Church of Trade and Wealth returned to their church on the gleaming magic sailboat they were riding on soon after welcoming back the statues of their gods. But before leaving, they also left three clergymen to start building a church locally according to the previous agreement.

After sending away this group of upstart clergy, life on Lawrence Island returned to the previous days of dealing with official duties every day and then guiding work in various places on the territory.

As time went by, the construction of water conservancy projects on the island progressed very smoothly. After all, this place can be called humid even in the dry season, so although the reservoir is needed, it is not necessary to design an extremely high water storage capacity when designing. Therefore, in more than a month after the pirates were eliminated, Lawrence and the others also successively repaired the first batch of water conservancy projects in the plan, which could guarantee the water supply in the dry season.

Of course, the progress of the project is so fast because in addition to the tauren on the island dispatching more than 300 migrant workers to greatly enrich the labor force, the group of pirates who were captured before also made great efforts.

After the trial on the island, these pirates who committed minor crimes were sentenced to undergo labor reform on the island from one and a half to seven years. However, unlike slaves, these pirates who need to undergo labor reform will only receive normal corporal punishment, and they can also get necessary labor items, food, medical treatment and 1/5 of the normal workers' wages during their work.

More importantly, all pirates who have completed labor reform can choose to leave the island or become naturalized locally after they are free. And those naturalized former pirates can obtain the same status as the local ordinary people.

According to Lawrence and the island church's investigation, the pirates' enthusiasm for labor suddenly increased a lot after they learned how the island would deal with them. For them, many people went to sea back then just to make a living. After arriving at sea, he didn't enjoy the benefits of being a pirate at the bottom of the pirate group, but he suffered a lot and didn't get much money. So they don't miss life at sea.

So after learning that Lawrence is willing to give them a chance to change their minds and start a new life. Most of them burst out with great enthusiasm for labor, and they were even able to often exceed the labor plan formulated on the island to get the previously agreed prizes from Lawrence, such as tobacco, meat, various daily necessities, and even work points.

As for the fact that they were whipped more times than normal people because of the bad habits they had developed on the pirate ship, they didn't resent it, because the punishment was carried out in full accordance with the regulations and was fair. In this era, from schools to the army, from factories to farms, all kinds of corporal punishment can be said to be commonplace, and being whipped here is definitely an acceptable form of punishment for them.

According to the plan, after the construction of these water conservancy projects is completed, there will be no new water conservancy projects until the first batch of rice is harvested. The vacated manpower was invested in the construction of grain warehouses.

Lawrence also knew that granaries made of stone, cement, and steel were the strongest and most usable. But considering the current economic situation on the island and the manpower and material resources that can be mobilized. He immediately gave up this theoretically most effective grain depot construction plan.

Instead, there are a group of dry-column granaries built with wood. Although these wooden buildings that will be built in a sheltered and relatively high place in the town may not last ten years in this area, but this section Time has been enough for this territory to fully develop.

During the building design process, Lawrence subconsciously designed these buildings based on the stilted buildings he had seen when he traveled to the Southwest in his previous life. The result quickly won the approval of others.

"It feels a bit like the buildings built by the local aborigines, but yours is much better than those simple houses, but this basic architectural style and principle are in the same strain." Safiel surrounded Lawrence's previous production After looking at the sand table and the model, she said that she had seen a lot of local customs and customs around her during her last visit, so her first reaction after seeing these architectural models was that they were very similar to the traditional houses around them.

"There is indeed a certain connection." Lawrence nodded, because the styles of the stilted buildings in his mind were invented and created by the people who lived in this humid climate all year round, and Lawrence also found that in the same humid and rainy climate Under the same conditions, intelligent creatures with similar productivity will show a kind of convergence in some aspects even if they are separated on different planes.

Therefore, when designing these grain depots, Lawrence definitely did not copy the designs of his previous life, but synthesized some reasonable designs of local traditional buildings after full consideration. Because he knows the importance of adapting to the place, any dogmatism will hinder the implementation of correct practices.

And the fact is the same. This kind of building, which can be said to combine the design advantages of the two worlds, successfully passed the review of the review team composed of priests and architects from several churches and became the construction standard for the first batch of granaries in the territory. . If nothing else, this standard will also be implemented across the island in the future.

During the past month, the island has also made a lot of achievements in other directions besides construction. For example, after this period of maintenance, the two steam sailboats whose superstructures were almost destroyed were finally repaired.

During this period of time, with the development of Niujiao Bay, the port area has become more and more busy. Of course, this kind of busyness does not only come from the communication between the surrounding islands, but also includes the communication between various areas on New Sauer Island. After all, most of the settlements on the island are by the sea or by the river leading to the sea, so water transport has naturally become the most convenient mode of transportation between the island and the surrounding islands.

But in this way, the few boats on the island seemed a bit inadequate. Even those fishermen who defected can use the small fishing boats they brought over as supplements. However, this part of the capacity still has an obvious capacity gap for the rapidly growing traffic demand of the entire island. Therefore, the two repaired pirate ships can be regarded as timely rain in the face of islands with insufficient transportation capacity.

In fact, Lawrence initially attempted to incorporate the two ships into the island's coast guard. But during the repairs, after checking Lawrence, it was discovered that these two ships were not professional warships, but commercial fast sailing ships that had been strengthened and forcibly armed.

Not to mention that after the superstructure has been injured, the strength of these ships makes them prone to various problems once they face fierce battles again. Therefore, out of various considerations, Lawrence finally reluctantly gave up and allocated the ship to the shipping department.

Of course, before allocating these ships to the shipping department, they unloaded most of the artillery on the ship and installed them on the port forts and urban fortifications, leaving only a handful of artillery for self-defense.

Since the previous pirate group was eliminated, there have been no organized pirates around, so removing some of the artillery will not be too dangerous, but will free up more tonnage for transportation.

So after the design of the barn was finalized, Lawrence rushed to the seaside to attend the launching ceremony of the two boats. According to the plan, these two ships will be sent to implement the material operation routes between those islands. The short-distance sailboats that originally operated this route will be transferred back to operate the route within the island.

After a brief speech in less than a minute, Lawrence and the others watched the two newly repaired ships sail out of the port carrying the goods produced on the island. He knew it was going to be a really good start.