AWDC Chapter 36
by VolareRoy, receiving a pickaxe from a thick-armed laborer, vigorously gouged the rock face.
A hole opened up there.
“We did it! It’s through!”
Toma was peering in from beyond the hole. Toma, crawling out, and Roy, who awaited him, both had faces smeared with mud and crumpled with tears.
The two embraced in the narrow hole, still crouching.
Roy was the general manager of the desert greening project, and Toma the designer of the plan. Now, the two were embracing inside the tunnel piercing the Lean Ridge, the most challenging part of the project.
“Toma, you did it!” “Mr. Roy, we finally did it.”
John, Jim, Ladapole, and other key people involved in the construction also witnessed this moment and rejoiced together.
Ladapole, who usually never stopped talking, was choked with tears of joy.
Normally, neither Roy nor I would enter the forefront of the tunnel excavation. However, we wanted to be present only for the moment of the tunnel’s breakthrough.
The construction workers understood this and left the final part to Roy and me.
It’s been two years since we started digging the tunnel, including the trial dig. Partway through, the strata became harder, and there were more rocks, making it impossible to continue digging.
I hesitated to introduce explosives to this world, fearing the negative impact it would have, so I put off dynamite production. However, when the appearance of hard rock forced the project to be suspended, I started working on it.
Of course, the manufacturing method was kept secret, and only Krim and I were involved. However, the power of dynamite was well known to the people involved in the construction, and I was prepared for it to be used for purposes other than civil engineering.
We also made trolleys to carry the soil dug out of the tunnel to the outside. We laid narrow rails in the tunnel and put the trolleys on top.
We had made this during the trial dig, but everyone was amazed at its convenience once they started using it.
We also manufactured and improved civil engineering tools such as pickaxes and shovels for this project. Before, construction tools were so poor that they even used stone tools. We made most of them out of iron.
Although not exactly tools, we also made lighting such as lamps. They were absolutely necessary inside the tunnel, and they seemed to be very useful at the work camps and lodging places for road and waterway construction.
Of the things I made for this project, the axle may have attracted the most attention.
The bearings that Ladapole painstakingly created were used for the axles of wagons and trolleys in this project, and they attracted a lot of attention.
After all, wagons used to break their axles so easily that they spent more time repairing axles than carrying cargo.
Since we started using bearings, axles have hardly ever broken.
Someone immediately noticed the axles being used in the construction.
It was Labos, who quickly set up a shop in the village. He came to the construction site many times and sold daily necessities to the laborers, and he was amazed at the excellence of the axles.
He immediately talked to the lord and Roy about selling the axles outside the village.
“Mr. Roy, please let me handle such good things. They’ll sell like hotcakes if I take them to the capital or Milona!”
However, the lord and Roy looked thoughtful.
The village had called in many laborers from outside for the construction. The village, which had fewer than 400 people, had grown to over 2,000.
Even so, they still needed to gather more people. Considering the construction costs, they wanted to sell the axles and make as much profit as possible, but this was impossible.
“Labos, I understand that you want to make a profit, but right now the blacksmiths are working frantically to make the tools used in the construction.
I wouldn’t mind offering them to Lord Midland or Earl Milona, but selling them is beyond our capacity.
We can’t increase the workload any further.”
“Then, I’ll bring blacksmiths with me. Since only a limited number of people can make axles, I’ll have that person make only axles, and I’ll have the craftsmen I bring make construction tools.
That way, we’ll be able to make enough axles to sell outside.”
Labos tenaciously negotiated and decided on a plan to sell the axles.
The misalignment of the tunnel’s tip was more noticeable vertically than horizontally. Even so, it was only about 80 centimeters off. This was an acceptable amount, as it could be easily fixed by slightly widening the hole.
I was unhappy that the misalignment occurred, but I thought that keeping it to this extent in a world without sophisticated surveying equipment was a considerable achievement.
Now, the tunnel is in the process of lining the walls with bricks. Since the waterway that will draw water to the desert can be improved and repaired later, I plan to leave the bottom and sides of the waterway exposed for the time being. However, once water flows through the tunnel, it will be difficult to enter and inspect or carry out repair work. I decided to make the walls strong with bricks and cement. That interior work was steadily progressing.
Once the most difficult part, the tunnel construction, is finished, the construction of reservoirs and waterways will become the main focus.
Because tunnel construction involves working in a confined space, the work does not progress even if a large number of personnel are put in. On the contrary, if inexperienced people enter, the risk of accidents increases. I only allowed a small number of people to work on the tunnel.
However, waterway and reservoir construction is all about personnel and materials. We decided to recruit more people from outside the village than ever before. Furthermore, since they would eventually be engaged in agricultural work, we eagerly recruited couples and families. And above all, it was our policy to have women participate in the work as well.
There may be more trouble if women enter the construction, but male laborers will try to show off their good side in front of women. More people will try to appeal as hard workers than by boasting their strength and fighting. If that happens, the construction will progress, and if they become a couple, that couple may engage in agriculture on new farmland after the waterway construction.
“Do you even think about things like that?” Both the lord and Roy said in amazement, but they accepted my suggestion.
Now, mingled with the shouts of men, there were high-pitched voices of women in the waterway construction, and the place was much more lively than before.