Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 307: Chapter 297 Tenglong Guard Engineering Team _2

After entering June, most affairs within Tenglong Guard were on the right track.

Firstly, the construction of housing in the various garrisons and garrisons was largely completed, entering the final phase.

Twelve thousand sets of houses sound like a lot, but in actuality, when distributed among the various thousand households and garrisons, it’s not that much.

Mud-hut constructions were relatively easy; with about a dozen laborers, three mud huts could be built in one day. Six rooms and a courtyard for one family could be completed in three to four days.

Moreover, when military households build houses, men and women, old and young, all lend a hand. Five military households form one group, helping each other with construction. At most, in a little over a month, everyone could move into new homes.

Of course, to achieve this, the organization and investment of the garrison are needed.

If the military households were left to organize the construction themselves, helping out for a couple of days would be manageable for most, but spending a month exclusively building houses would be tough.

With the completion of house construction, the construction of various public facilities has been put on the agenda.

According to Yang Zhenshan’s ideas, Tenglong Guard needs a large-scale infrastructure development.

Infrastructure includes the government offices, walls, roads, wells, and water channels of each thousand households and garrisons, as well as the repairs of the Guard City walls, the renovation of streets within the city, and the renewal of the residential buildings, among others.

Since it is a large-scale infrastructure development, it naturally requires a lot of labor. First, the construction tasks of each thousand households and garrisons are organized by the local officials. The Guardian Department remunerates based on the specific workload and inspects the results.

Secondly, the construction tasks within Guard City and the roadworks within the Tenglong Guard territory are directly handled by the Guardian Department, which sets up a dedicated engineering troop.

Construction tasks like those within the thousand households and garrisons are actually not that extensive. Only about a dozen mud-hut rooms are needed for the government office of a thousand households. The walls of the garrison don’t need to be too high, the roads only need to be leveled, more wells can be dug, and the only slightly complex part is the water channels.

These tasks don’t need to be completed in a concentrated short period, but can instead be done slowly during the farming off-season.

Thus, Yang Zhenshan delegated these tasks to each thousand households, to be completed by themselves.

As for the engineering troop, the tasks they are responsible for are large projects. Inside Guard City, Yang Zhenshan drafted a new plan. Although not amounting to a reconstruction, there are many places that need renovation, and outside the Guard City, the main task is to build roads.

Tenglong Guard’s jurisdiction is roughly sixty li from south to north, and thirty li from east to west. Within this region, there are only two official roads, one leading to Qinghua Prefecture City and another to Jing’an Prefecture City. The road heading south to Liao’an Prefecture is not an official road but merely a small path, barely suitable for a galloping horse, let alone a carriage.

Yang Zhenshan intended to build roads, to renovate the main roads and the common roads.

This was a comparatively massive project, and Yang Zhenshan estimated it would take two to three years to complete.

After the completion of the housing construction, Yang Zhenshan ordered the Guardian Department to establish an engineering troop of a thousand people to start with the renovation of the city walls.

Yang Zhenshan intended to cultivate this engineering troop into a professional engineering corps. Professionally, there would be carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, and so on. Building houses, constructing roads, and building bridges were just their basic skills. Once they became proficient in their work, Yang Zhenshan needed them to be able to manufacture siege equipment and construct forts as well.

Of course, since they are soldiers, they should also have a certain combat ability and take some time out for training.

They are not in the regular ranks of Tenglong Guard’s soldiers, but they will have a stable monthly wage.

On the sixth day of June in the thirtieth year of peace, the first engineering troop of Tenglong Guard was established.

Every worker within the engineering troop was selected from the ranks of labor in the various garrisons.

Their ages were between sixteen to twenty and thirty to forty.

The reason for such a selection was deliberate on the part of Yang Zhenshan.

Firstly, for those aged between thirty to forty, although they are considered strong and fit, their potential is undoubtedly much less compared to younger people due to their age.

Secondly, for those aged between sixteen to twenty, those selected implied that their families had two young able-bodied men, and without affecting the main labor force of military households, about three hundred younger youths were chosen from this group.

Young people learn faster and they were prepared for technical trades like carpentry and blacksmithing, among others.

After the establishment of the engineering troop, the first task was to repair the city walls.

With the arrival of these workers, Guard City became bustling once again.

After the establishment of the engineering troop, the construction of the salt fields was nearly completed, and the salt fields began recruiting salt-drying workers.

Currently, the salt fields did not require too many people, roughly two hundred would suffice, for the construction of the salt fields was phased. Currently, the first phase was completed, totaling twenty drying fields, each one hundred square meters.

Moving forward, the salt fields will continue to expand and will continue recruiting salt-drying workers.

Like the workers of the engineering troop, the workers within the salt fields also had a fixed monthly wage.

For the engineering troop and the salt fields, the military households of Tenglong Guard showed great enthusiasm. The reason is simple: there’s a fixed monthly wage to be had.

A stable income is unquestionably a huge temptation for them.

Unfortunately, the number of people currently recruited for the engineering troop and salt fields isn’t large, totaling just over twelve hundred people.

However, soldiers training in the military camp also receive full military pay and can not only have enough to eat but also enjoy meat every day.

How tempting is the prospect of meat every day for the military households who previously couldn’t even get enough to eat?

One could imagine.

As the training situation in the military camp spread, all registered soldiers of Tenglong Guard wanted to enter the camp for training.

They were hopeful, eager, and this hope brought with it enthusiasm.

Some registered soldiers, who had yet to enter the camp, started training on their own initiative, wanting to practice first so that they could perform better once in the camp and perhaps even earn rewards from their superiors.

And such enthusiasm peaked after the first batch of soldiers finished their basic training and returned home.

Basic training was a novelty for the soldiers of Tenglong Guard, and the reward and punishment system of the military camp was eagerly discussed among the military households.

Since it’s training, there had to be necessities, rewards, and punishment. Perform well in training and eat more meat; fail to perform, and you can only watch others eat.

Yang Zhenshan, of course, applied such a simple and effective reward and punishment system.

Hearing about such a reward and punishment system, the soldiers yet to undergo training became even more motivated. Many soldiers began practicing the martial arts passed down from their ancestors.

In the past, Tenglong Guard was considered an elite among elites. While not every soldier was a Martial Artist, there was certainly no lack of them.

Previously, they couldn’t even get enough to eat, so naturally, they did not practice martial arts. But now that they could, it was time to pick up the skills of their ancestors.

Regarding this, Yang Zhenshan was more than pleased.

This transformation was undoubtedly a good thing for the entire Tenglong Guard.

Everyone valuing martial prowess, that’s the way a garrison should be.