Saving System: Calm Down, My Fleeing Host!

Chapter 317 - 309: Underground City Construction 19

The underground excavation project was in full swing, and with the Soldier’s Shovel, things were twice as effective, keeping the team motivated.

The foundation here was made of tuff, given its proximity to volcanic clusters. The basic structure was pyrolite, making it very easy to hollow out the layers. As they progressed, the work became even easier.

The most crucial part of the underground project was the ventilation pipes and drainage systems. Due to the special structure of the underground here, the wet rock layers produced little water. As long as the drainage pipes were properly connected, filtering them into a pool showed no presence of chemical toxic substances, making them suitable for filtering and usage.

Their drinking water now mainly came from the snow-melting pool, which was filtered and boiled before consumption. So far, there have been no issues.

As for the ventilation system, with the aid of modern merchandise, it wasn’t difficult either.

At each turning point of the tunnels, a long tubular cave could be set up as an air vent. Considering cost issues, the lower part could be linked with large water pipes, the upper half could be hollowed out bamboo tubes or other natural materials as substitutes, as long as the cave maintained a flow of fresh air.

Lin Yiqiu’s team had an elder who had participated in building tombs. According to his description, the underground tomb chambers were mostly constructed using mortise and tenon joints, with gaps sealed using charcoal and clay, but this wasn’t applicable to her Underground City. Can the places where the dead reside be the same as those for the living?

To accommodate many people, it must be built with bricks and stones, and also strong enough supporting pillars.

Some public areas require spacious grounds. To avoid collapses, during excavation, leave a one-meter diameter pillar at intervals along the way.

The Underground City’s houses are currently planned based on temporary refuge, with layouts for bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, storage rooms, and it also needs public facilities like conference rooms, schools, cafeterias, supermarkets, and training grounds, which are essential activity spaces.

Additionally, several emergency escape routes need to be set up, using a well-digging method, vertically downward, equipped with long stairs, to ensure smooth escape from the mountain in case of emergencies.

The entrance gate of the Underground City is to be constructed using a castle’s architectural structure, with a three-layer height. The city wall must be heavy and strong for integrated offense and defense, with sentry towers and catapults on both sides. With the ability to make Earth Bombs, they won’t be throwing stones but bombs. The walls are left with numerous small holes for shooting arrows, the whole mountain is enclosed with walls built along the terrain, embedded with inverted spikes for safety assurance.

Outside the wall, dig trenches and set traps. This place is surrounded by mountains with no real foothills, the base of one mountain is the top of another.

Let’s call it Outer Mountain. Outer Mountain can be used for farming, the slopes converted to terraces, with canals and waterwheels built.

The priority is to complete these before the cold snap, and implement both the city’s expansion and Outer Mountain’s modifications step by step after the cold snap.

With so many places needing construction, Cheng Xiaoxiao wished she could split a person into two.

Clearly, manpower was indeed too scarce.

In a snowstorm, the underground tunneling project had already taken shape, bricks had been fired into form. The workshop expanded several folds, ready for mass production, to be used anytime.

During this period, the people from Yuan Yang City didn’t come to cause any trouble.

According to the brothers embedded in the city, death rates were rising, mostly affecting the elderly and children.

When they started building the Underground City, it was about zero degrees in the mountains, but within half a month, it had dropped to minus ten degrees.

Now, nighttime temperatures in Yuan Yang City have broken through minus twenty degrees, with nobody daring to step out at night, as a slight negligence could lead to freezing to death outside.

The grain of various Aristocratic Families was sufficient, yet not much coal was prepared. The charcoal burning workshops had long ceased operation due to a lack of raw materials.

Some small families, merchants, and landowners handed over most of their estate, seeking refuge with a few major Aristocratic Families,

Now, with the scarcity of coal resources, it’s impossible to heat the kangs, and food isn’t abundant. Having been abandoned by the Aristocratic Families, they became stray dogs with nowhere to go.

As the temperature continued to drop, those unwilling to sit and wait for death caused trouble regularly, leading to frequent bloodshed incidents.

No wonder they didn’t come to bother them anymore. Now, she was short on manpower. Should she seize the opportunity to gather some people from the mountain?

Cheng Xiaoxiao called Cheng Hao and described the situation in the city.

"If the squad leader really wants to increase manpower, it’s not impossible."

"Why do you call me squad leader when there’s no outsider here?" What’s with the formality?

Cheng Hao raised an eyebrow, "All right! I’ll still call you Daya."

As soon as he spoke, his sister threw a pen at him. After catching it steadily, he complimented her earnestly, saying he lacked a pen.

Cheng Xiaoxiao was speechless, "Can’t Brother just speak normally?"

"Brother saw that you’ve been quite exhausted recently so he thought of relaxing your tense nerves."

Cheng Hao using Cheng Xiaoxiao’s words against her, truly lifting a stone only to drop it on one’s own foot.

"I’ll make sure to rest."

Changing the topic, "We’re urgently lacking manpower. I greatly wish to recruit more people, but those people were wealthy and pampered before, probably not handy or diligent at work. They might even cause trouble for me, which would be counterproductive."

Cheng Xiaoxiao articulated her concerns, hoping Cheng Hao might have a suitable solution.

After all, she didn’t understand the middle class of this world.

However, taking into account her past experiences, inefficiency and distractions were rampant, troublesome indeed.

"Times have changed; now they’re desperate, merely staying alive is fortunate enough, not daring to stir trouble." Cheng Hao analyzed.

"But old habits die hard. Once they stabilize, they’ll come up with all sorts of schemes. Like when you give a beggar a bun one day, he’ll certainly be grateful to you. But if you give him a bun daily, over time, he’ll regard it as a given, and if you stop giving it to him one day, he’ll undoubtedly curse you as heartless."

Cheng Hao chuckled knowingly, "Didn’t expect Xiaoxiao to think of so much."

Cheng Xiaoxiao grumbled silently, of course. Such people are commonplace both in past lives and the present.

"I want to discuss with Brother whether there’s a once-and-for-all method so they follow orders, work properly, don’t stir trouble, and most importantly, keep this place a secret."

"Xiaoxiao, these demands are quite high!"

"Of course, if they don’t meet these requirements, it’d be better to have none."

"It’s not impossible." Cheng Hao said with a smile, looking at his conflicted sister.

"Hurry up, Brother, what do you think?"

Cheng Hao paused before speaking, "Sell themselves into slavery."

Cheng Xiaoxiao suddenly realized, blaming herself for not thinking in that direction. As someone with a modern soul, how could selling slaves actively cross her mind?

"But those people were used to being served by maids and valets, they look down on those of low birth the most, with class notions ingrained in their bones. Now, they actually have to sell themselves into slavery. Will they be willing?"

Here, people earn by skill, possessing little class consciousness, perfect for ordinary folks. Yet, for aristocrats or nobles with swarms of servants, it’s a disgrace.

It’s unclear whether life or pride is more important.