Chapter 380 - 378: The 2nd Heating Hub
The arrival of the special forces is good news for both Chen Xin and the other workers.
At the very least, they can go to the military camp’s cafeteria for meals every day, instead of having to cook here in the snow pit.
Moreover, they can dine in the camp cafeteria, comfortably sitting at tables to eat, without rushing back to the tent with their lunchboxes, fearing that staying outside longer would make the food get cold.
Furthermore, this is a special forces field camp, and the meal standards are much better than those previously provided to the workers. The troops would not make separate meals for them.
Besides, it’s just a few workers, Chen Xin, and the geological survey team members cooking their rations along with the army’s rations, and eating together. It’s not a big deal, merely an extra check on the food to avoid some unnecessary accidents.
Initially, the commander of this special forces unit wanted Chen Xin to bring these workers and the geological survey team to live in the military camp, but Chen Xin politely declined the suggestion, so both the workers and the geological survey team could only continue living in their own camp with Chen Xin.
There seemed to be no longing for moving into the camp among everyone.
Although the camp conditions are better, with mobile housing and proper beds, which are much better than the tents in the snow pit, for ordinary people, living in the camp is undoubtedly more restrictive, even with good conditions, there’s a certain fear.
Furthermore, considering the workers’ living conditions, the commander of the special forces also allocated a spare mobile barrack they brought along, setting it up in the snow pit to improve the accommodation for Chen Xin and his team.
This mobile barrack mainly consists of prefabricated houses, with specially processed insulated panels combined with steel structure prefabricated parts, assembling into two complete barrack rooms with modular bathrooms and toilets, and additionally, an office, instantly raising Chen Xin and his team’s living conditions a notch.
That’s why the workers and the geological survey team had no issue with Chen Xin rejecting the camp accommodation.
This mobile barrack isn’t just a few prefabricated houses, in fact, a mobile barrack like this comes with accompanying water and electricity facilities and heating and cooling air conditioning, ensuring soldiers using it have good logistics support in any environment.
Of course, the cooling air conditioning of the barrack isn’t needed now, as the barrack wall panels are all treated for cold resistance, ensuring that even facing temperatures below minus tens of degrees, the mobile barrack can still maintain a sufficiently comfortable internal temperature.
Regarding this mobile barrack, Chen Xin has more thoughts compared to Wang Hai’s exoskeleton, because if further upgraded, this mobile barrack could evidently evolve into a large Lego construction or an orbital drop pod, like the Terran population structures in "StarCraft".
Even without such sci-fi technologies, through certain design and modification, originally block-like prefabricated houses could become foldable, deploying directly after arrival without needing time to assemble, which is great.
Chen Xin shared this idea with the political commissar of the special forces, who happily agreed, allowing Chen Xin to freely modify the mobile barrack without worry about damage.
For the military, although Chen Xin’s first modification isn’t on firearms or battle equipment, logistical gear can be more crucial for troops at times than firearms.
Just like those modular planting pods in the camp, they provide fresh fruits and vegetables to the troops anytime and anywhere, which is essential for troop combat effectiveness.
Though planning for modification, Chen Xin didn’t immediately move to upgrade the mobile barrack.
Currently, the most important matter for him is the construction of the heat supply infrastructure. Upgrading military equipment is important, but for Chen Xin, it’s not as prioritized as the heat supply infrastructure.
After all, the former can be delayed with little impact, but the latter is of great importance.
During the period the special forces were around, Cao Daren finally completed the water return well at the Seventh Middle School.
Upon hearing the news, Chen Xin immediately brought the ready components for the second heat supply infrastructure and headed with the workers to the Seventh Middle School.
Another advantage of having the special forces’ close protection is that Chen Xin can hitch a free ride on their transport vehicles.
Although this special forces unit only has the strength of a company of over a hundred personnel, they brought plenty of vehicles, including five multifunctional JM8 Junma all-terrain vehicles, nine Lynx all-terrain vehicles, and two Python-type all-terrain vehicles.
The Python-type is a heavy vehicle with a load capacity of over thirty tons, mainly used for transporting supplies and ammunition, whereas Junma is more lightweight than Python, less load capacity but more agile, with hinge-like design enabling interchangeable pods for various functions, among which the five Junma of this team carry different functionalities.
Chen Xin borrowed one of the Junma, outfitted with a transport pod for hauling the components of the second heat supply infrastructure. Although the distance from the camp to the Seventh Middle School wasn’t far, it wasn’t close either, relying on the workers to manually transport the parts would be time-consuming and labor-intensive.
But with vehicle transport, it’s completely different.
With a convoy consisting of one Junma and three Lynx vehicles, it took less than half an hour to transport Chen Xin, workers, and the components of the second heat supply infrastructure to the Seventh Middle School, and Wang Hai also brought his battle team along.
"Writer, you’re here! What’s with these soldiers?" Cao Daren was visibly startled seeing the convoy arrive, not expecting to see troop personnel.
"It’s nothing, they’re here to protect me, don’t worry." Chen Xin briefly explained to Cao Daren before asking about the situation here: "Is the water return well here completed? No problems?"
"Aren’t you confident in my work? The well is done with no problems, just waiting for you to install the heat supply infrastructure." Cao Daren watched relaxedly as workers unloaded the components from the vehicle.
"Alright, do a final check, and if everything is fine, let’s start the equipment installation." Chen Xin saw Cao Daren’s confident demeanor and didn’t say much.