Chapter 427 - 1: August
Familiarity with worldly affairs seems to be an innate talent.
Among the many natives, the zebra was particularly skilled at building relationships and winning hearts, which is why he was the first to "ally" with the new leader, yet never faced resentment from his companions.
If it were someone else, upon leaving the interrogation room with the chocolate rewarded in exchange for information, they would never share it with their companions.
But the zebra could do it.
On the evening of August 2nd, he demonstrated this peculiar "generosity" again. After opening the jar of canned peaches, he only ate a small piece himself and then cut the rest into small pieces to share with his native companions.
Not only that, he also thoughtfully saved the two largest pieces of yellow peach and half a jar of syrup, daring to walk in front of the wooden house to share with Saturday and Sunday.
...
The barrier between superiors and subordinates was broken by his bold move.
Both Saturday and Sunday eagerly accepted his gift and brought the zebra into the wooden house he had never entered before, introducing him to many new things.
What a calendar is; what a pinyin chart is;
What agricultural knowledge maps are, how plants are grown, how they grow, bloom, bear fruit, and are harvested;
The Mandarin pronunciation he had been struggling to imitate, how to learn it systematically, and how to describe the world in Mandarin...
...
As the saying goes, "Eat from someone, your mouth becomes soft; take from someone, your hands become short."
On this holiday, both Saturday and Sunday were already in a good mood, and later received the gift they had long wanted, tasting food that was even sweeter than they imagined.
Influenced by this, facing the zebra who had long been under special attention, the two shed their usual stern and cold facade, answering the zebra’s questions while half explaining, half boasting about the items in their house.
Sunday had his self-made pottery and small metal tools forged in collaboration with Chen Zhou.
As for Saturday, his pride lay in a few paintings drawn in imitation of Chen Zhou’s style.
Among them was a still life sketch, not quite mature but already showing some modern sketch charm, and it was his proudest work.
The zebra, who had been on the island for nearly a month, glanced at these novel items for the first time and couldn’t help but praise them continuously.
Even if he didn’t understand, he couldn’t undermine the two "bosses’" faces, besides, these things indeed deserved his praise.
Of course, even though "gifts were received," Saturday and Sunday didn’t disclose any important information to the zebra, such as the secrets of firearms.
They only revealed simple and trivial knowledge, which the natives could master in the future ahead of time to the zebra.
When the zebra truly proves his loyalty and reliability, without needing to be taught by them, the "Celestial God" will naturally convey this knowledge to him.
The Celestial God is always fair; he would never favor one over another.
His wisdom is as deep as the ocean, and every decision he makes holds meanings beyond ordinary understanding—
This is a consensus that Saturday and Sunday reached long ago.
...
The festival speech showed the natives a brighter future.
However, this particularly "sweet" pie cannot be eaten in a short time. Before the rainy season comes, building defensive structures, learning, and working are still tasks they need to undertake.
...
Time quickly moved to August 13th.
The once clear sky is now filled with heavy rain clouds, and the sea breeze carrying a moist and salty scent blew across the mountainside.
As the drizzling raindrops pattered in the courtyard, moistening the stone bricks and blurring the windows, Chen Zhou sitting at the desk took a long breath.
No matter the reason, the Spaniards ultimately did not expend a lot of resources and time complaining to the island over the disappearance of one sailor.
For now, he had a long breathing period.
Even though the bad weather of the rainy season made most outdoor work impossible to proceed normally, more than a month’s time was enough for him to make more preparations.
...
Since the midday rain on August 13th, which lasted more than half an hour, all defensive works on the island have come to a halt.
Chen Zhou began to prioritize the domestication of the natives, talent cultivation, formulating rewards and penalties systems.
...
The rainy season is imminent, and most natives don’t have shelters from the wind and rain, nor the ability to cook outside.
Building a shelter, preventing the natives from falling ill due to weather and delaying work was the first problem Chen Zhou needed to solve.
Various materials stacked on the mountainside, yet to be moved to the northern corner of Shandong, were directly sent next to the gallows—
The residential area that Chen Zhou initially planned was right here, built along the mountains.
...
Apart from the two natives who continued to guard the cattle and sheep with Sunday, taking care of fields.
Everyone else, including Saturday, put aside other work, grabbed shovels and pickaxes, and arrived at this rather flat mountain land, began leveling the ground and digging foundations.
The original greenery on the slope was gradually erased, replaced by the soil’s true color.
The slightly muddy ground made it inevitably challenging to dig, and everyone’s clothes were smeared with mud.
Chen Zhou pushed a small cart designed like a field marking cart, drawing black lines on the yellowed land—the car was filled with crushed charcoal.
Having the experience of living in a modern city, Chen Zhou reserved a lot of space for the residential area, especially the roads, which were quite spacious.
From the moment the second group of indigenous captives was taken, it was destined that the island would never be populated by just ten people forever.
Considering that this place might become a large gathering spot with hundreds or even thousands of people in the future, Chen Zhou included some basic infrastructure in the initial planning sketches.
...
The entire residential area spread out around the gallows.
Above the residential area were the fields and cave dwellings, while below lay the untouched virgin forest.
Chen Zhou planned to set three "core areas" within the residential area.
The execution area was one of them, currently only featuring a simple gallows, which could potentially develop into a raised platform surrounded by a large square, where buildings resembling "courts" or "tribunals" would be established, and possibly a prison might be constructed.
In the future, those who violated the criminal law and were to be punished would be publicly executed on the high platform to serve as a warning to other indigenous people.
The second core area was a square resembling a "commercial center."
If the island could develop into a port in the future, providing supplies and entertainment for contemporary sailors, it would feature numerous bars, inns, and even brothels as entertainment venues, aimed at earning the gold and silver treasures plundered by sailors from the Inca Kingdom or elsewhere.
In addition, Chen Zhou also wanted to sell some "specialties" to Spaniards, Dutch, and British, such as chocolate, milk tea, and Autumn White Almonds, or perhaps some plastic products delivered by mysterious rewards.
If trustworthy people were available, he might even export improved methods of matchlock gun manufacturing, or sell some modern chemical-produced specialized gunpowder, grenades, and landmines.
Of course, that would be a different price.
The third core area was the island’s "administrative center," responsible for civic planning, managing various departments such as the future Education Department, Health Department, and Culture and Sports Department, as well as agencies responsible for security, judiciary, and commerce.
However, given the current population size and productivity on the island, considering the administrative center seemed premature; even the island’s roads had no time to be paved, so they could only make do by building the indigenous people a few decent houses.
Those large-scale projects wouldn’t have a chance to commence for at least five or six years, if implemented, possibly not for over a decade.
...
Despite not being able to build immediately, Chen Zhou still drafted many preliminary plans for the residential area and port design.
Among them, the drainage system and flood prevention systems were particularly important.
Since the island is located in tropical or subtropical regions and isolated overseas, it frequently experiences heavy rainfall.
To prevent flooding from destroying the residential area and disrupting life, considerable redundancy must be reserved when constructing roads and sewer systems.
Even if unable to cope with a fifty-year storm, it must at least withstand regular days of torrential rain, minimizing water accumulation on the roads and preventing traffic disruption.
...
The new wooden huts for the indigenous people were almost like cramped dormitories, divided into two rooms for four people each, complete with a small kitchen.
Compared to the dwellings of Saturday and Sunday, although these two wooden huts were much roomier, they lacked bright windows and fine furniture; to see the light of day, doors must be opened.
Moreover, there were no bedding on the beds inside these wooden huts, so at night, the indigenous people could only sleep on the hard wooden boards.
Even though the roofs of the wooden huts were laid with two layers of wood and some mixed straw and broad leaves, it couldn’t ensure defense against a month-long heavy rainfall impact.
It’s likely that by the end of rainy season, these three small cabins would start to leak frequently.
But there was no other way, as the rainy season had already begun, constructing wooden and stone houses would take too long. For now, providing the indigenous people with a roughly sufficient shelter was already quite good.
Furthermore, the indigenous people were quite satisfied with a new home that had a roof ——
Even if the allocated house was slightly cramped, it was still more comfortable than the dwellings in their original tribe, far better than camping in the wilderness.
...
The cleared land area on the hillside was much larger than the three small huts.
From above, looking down, only three square wooden huts stood amidst the large patch of yellowish-brown barren soil, appearing quite lonely, like some isolated small settlement outside of the world.
...
The huts were completed just before the arrival of torrential rain.
After officially entering the rainy season, the indigenous people’s pace of life, affected by the climate, turned calm and relaxed.
Their work area for the seven indigenous people shifted to the kiln area around the mountain slopes.
Besides daily assistance to Saturday and Sunday’s work, they also had to "attend class."
...
The textbooks Chen Zhou had prepared in advance came into play at this time.
After finishing their work in the morning, in the afternoon, the seven indigenous people would gather at the small wooden hut planted with grapes to receive education from Saturday.
Starting with the basics of phonetic spelling, they learned Chinese vocabulary while practically verifying agricultural knowledge.
In between forging sessions, Chen Zhou would sometimes audit classes by the small wooden hut, pointing out inappropriate aspects of Saturday’s teaching or supplementing additional details for the group.
...
It turned out that Saturday had quite a talent for being a teacher.
Using his relatively gentle and patient nature and meticulous observational skills, he could keenly discern the confusions of the seven "students."
When re-teaching the knowledge imparted to him by Chen Zhou to the indigenous people, he could explain it very thoroughly.
Even when it came to "grading homework," he could act like a real teacher, offering appropriate suggestions for each indigenous person’s shortcomings.
Additionally, compared to Chen Zhou, Saturday had an advantage —— he could speak the indigenous language.
Leveraging the advantage of "two tongues," Saturday could more quickly and effectively teach the indigenous people, helping them grasp and apply the knowledge sooner.