181 As firm as the pyramid

Chapter 181: As firm as the pyramid

Translator: _Min_Editor: Yukira_

The next morning, Fishbone's flag was raised at the town hall of Shenxiang Town, proclaiming that it had officially become part of the territory of Fishbone Base.

Under the supervision of 20 riflemen, more than 200 survivors carrying cement bags and steel bars arrived at Taipu River. They would be under the leadership of 20 engineers that Fishbone dispatched to establish defense facilities on the riverside.

Although they were still being forced to engage in manual labor, Jiang Chen's treatment of them was far better than the mutated humans. Not only did he distribute winter clothes bought from the Sixth Street, but he also didn't use whip in order to force them to work harder. As long as they were not slacking off, they would not be punished for failing to finish the project on time.

During his encounter with Shenxiang Town, Jiang Chen used a completely different strategy compared to winning over the group of survivors in Qingpu area.

As a result of being situated outside of the city where the population density was extremely low, the zombies in town were obliterated. After more than ten years of hard work, the town was finally cleared of zombies. It can be said that they lived in comfort these past years compared to those struggling survivors in the metropolis. Thus, their combat ability was also much weaker, and the difficulty of enlisting them was also naturally lesser.

For instance, the survivors in Shenxiang town were all hoes-wielding farmers, while the survivors of Qingpu were gun-wielding hunters. For the nomadic "hunters", Jiang Chen adopted a strategy of trading, enticing, and then assimilating. For these "farmers", however, he adopted a straightforward approach in assimilating them in his military force.

All the survivors implanted with slavery microchips were directly promoted to the management position, and the construction of infrastructure was handed over to more than 700 newly joined members. So far, this was how the pyramid's governing structure was established. Jiang Chen merely needed to keep a firm grip on the people on the top layer of the pyramid, and there would naturally be people under him who would take charge on his behalf for the matters in the bottom layer.

In order to supervise the construction of the defensive structure, Lu Huasheng personally took along a team to take over the construction.

The 200 survivors were split into 20 team, with each team being led by one engineer dispatched from Fishbone Base as they worked round the clock to construct the defensive structure.

On the other side, on Shenxiang Town's eastern part of the wilderness, more than 200 survivors were struggling to develop the barren land.

Here, one had to admire Jiang Chen's foresight to feed the survivors in his own base with "green food". Regardless whether or not it was done out of consideration, it was only now it was showing its merit. If someone consumed this type of thick nutrient supply, one would urinate more frequently, but it would definitely be a long time before one would feel the need to defecate.

The survivors, who were busy clearing out the barren lands, were stunned when they saw a vehicle full of dried manure being pulled into the hill on the side of the farm.

The mutated crops consumed a high amount of nutrients from the soil, and the fertilizer made out of mutants or zombies would increase the contamination of the soil (toxicity). Thus, they would naturally consider human waste as an option. They usually had to purchase industrial fertilizer from Sixth Street to supplement the fertility of the soil.

How valuable was this waste?

At first, Jiang Chen hadn't given it much thought but instead felt the impact of this on health was quite significant. It was not until the survivors of Qingpu offered a contract to clean their base that he began to notice the problem.

In this wasteland, human waste seemed to be extremely valuable too?

Wanghai City was located in the plains, where mineral deposits were extremely scarce in the surrounding area. Although nitrogen could be obtained through artificial nitrogen fixation technology and potassium could also be extracted from seawater, phosphorus scarcity was much harder to resolve. The cost of extracting phosphorus from a mutant organism or plant was not exactly low, and the main cost of producing fertilizer in the Sixth Street was higher than this phosphorus.

Excrement, however, was quite easy to handle. Its nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents were very rich and only needed to be mixed into the soil and then sprinkle the seeds.

Under Jiang Chen's direction, the farm's plot expanded from hundred acres to thousands of acres. If all of it was used to grow Carm tree, it was estimated that it could provide 100 tons of Carm resin per month. In this case, not only would it meet the industrial needs of Fishbone Base, it could also be exported to the Sixth Street. Based on the prevailing price of 150 crystals per ton, the farm would bring Fishbone Base a revenue of 10,000 crystals per month.

As for the ration of more than 700 people, provided there were 30 days in a month, two nutrient supplies per day, and if one dose of nutrient cost 0.1 crystal, it would only amount to more than 4,000 crystals.

As for those "expensive" provisions, after taking Sun Jiao's advice into consideration, Jiang Chen decided not supply them to the newly joined survivors for the time being. As for the reason, it was not because he was stingy, but rather it was to reinforce social class structure.

Unlike those survivors that were already implanted with microchips and sold themselves to Jiang Chen, if these precious rations were given too casually, it wouldn't make these "foreigners" feel grateful. On the contrary, it's likely that they would come to feel that it was too easy, and this might even give birth to disloyalty.

When all was said and done, this was the first time they assimilated more than 700 foreign population which was practically more than three times the population of Fishbone Base, and these 700 people also belonged to the same group. If you just want to enslave them to do manual labor, one just needed to fetter their hands and feet with fetters and handcuffs. However, if you want to "digest" them, you must split them apart first.

The specifics of implementation were also quite simple.

700 people, first split them into two; first half would remain here, while the rest would be brought back to the Fishbone Base. Those who were brought back would join the factory to engage in manufacturing or enter the new military camp to receive training.

At the same time, Jiang Chen announced that every one of them was a slave, and only two nutrients mixtures could be obtained every day.

But if someone performed outstandingly in their work, his identity would be upgraded to that of a low-class citizen, and daily ration would be upgraded to two nutrient mixtures, plus a piece of bread.

If you work harder and got upgraded to a middle-class citizen, the ration would turn into two nutrient mixtures, in addition to a pack of instant noodles.

If they became a high-class citizen, they would be able to enjoy unlimited rations just like those people implanted with microchips and would be allowed to participate in the "communal feeding" in the dining hall. Apart from not being able to join management position, they also enjoyed civil rights that were no different from those who were implanted with chips.

Once a disparity in status appeared in their small social circle, they would automatically split apart. Those who got promoted would protect their own interests and naturally stand on Jiang Chen's side in order to strive further for a higher promotion.

If they had the opportunity to climb up, most people would still choose to be content with what they have.

In addition to this, in order to distinguish ranks, all survivors implanted with chips would be conferred with a "Knight Emblem" as a means to encourage their contribution to the construction of Fishbone Base. Moreover, the "slavery chip" was officially renamed to "honorary chip". Despite being the same thing and only the name had changed, Jiang Chen could clearly sense the distinctive difference in the posture of those survivors who got promoted to knights after he promulgated his decision.

.....

The sense of honor, if used correctly, would be much more useful than those chips.

Of course, only under the premise that everyone could fill their belly would someone be able to pursue that illusory honor.

Translator's Thoughts

_Min_ _Min_

One more tonight