A real show of force that shocked all the unreasonable thoughts among the prisoners of war.
It is also unrealistic to expect prisoners of war to turn into docile sheep instantly. Because of this matter, the supervision of prisoner of war camps must be strengthened.
Henschel read out all the documents, and he also learned that the new prisoners of war belonged to the 60th Division and the 611th Division. He had no right to interfere with the Soviet military operations. From the prisoners' words, he learned that the Soviet army attacked the southwest
The German troops in the direction, I am afraid that some troops have also entered Ukraine. The local defenders have no way to do anything about the Soviet troops coming from the swamps!
The new prisoners of war ate some more potatoes, and then each was issued a draft ax and a gas mask.
"Gentlemen, we can only satisfy them in this way. Rush me to dig! You must adapt to all this soon."
Henschel was the first to pick up the tools, then urged the others to do the same.
Or is it because of what happened just now? Who can guarantee that a prisoner of war who picked up a draft ax will not suddenly cause destruction? If in ancient times, a draft ax could be considered a weapon!
The army has been escorting the new "miners" to the smoky mines, and the boring and tiring life of the prisoners of war has officially begun!
The newly arrived prisoners of war were divided into five groups, and each group was assigned a task. The group members learned that only after completing the task would they be entitled to eat. No one dared to neglect, so they put on gas masks and began to work hard to dig out the yellow-white ore.
Until dusk falls.
Following a melodious bugle, the old prisoners of war reflexively put down their work and left the mine with their tools to report.
After each day's work is completed, the mine will judge each group. Those who dig less ore will be punished, and those who dig more ore will be rewarded. In most cases, each group has exceeded the task, and waiting for the team members is a comfortable meal.
Hot spring baths, and a surprising amount of potatoes.
The old prisoners of war have long been accustomed to this kind of life. After taking a bath and eating, the Soviet army is responsible for cleaning their dirty clothes. They put on casual clothes and return to their barracks to fall asleep. Life is hard and fulfilling, and they know that they can dig
The ore will be used by the Russians to make weapons. How can I? Not only am I alive, but the Russians have also fulfilled their promises, and my life is generally pretty good now.
Due to the drastic changes in their thinking, some old prisoners of war gradually became willing to learn Soviet ideas. The Soviet army took the opportunity to print some pamphlets for the prisoners of war to study at night.
Salinchkin did not seek to cultivate a group of German Communists. As long as these prisoners of war could be rehabilitated through labor, everything would be fine.
The new prisoners of war repeated the new journey of the old prisoners of war, and what they saw and heard in the afternoon was eye-opening.
After a busy afternoon, the five groups of new prisoners of war all completed their assigned tasks. As reward, each of them received more than two kilograms of boiled potatoes and a bowl of fish, meat and mushroom soup.
After bathing in the hot springs and eating, they were exhausted and just wanted to rest.
The new prisoners of war who came to the barracks for the first time were once again shocked. Inside the large wooden house used as the barracks, there were beds on both sides of the corridor. The beds were divided into upper and lower floors, with a pure wooden structure. There was a layer of hay on the bed, and on it
Then lay out two layers of blankets, one as a mattress and the other as a bedding.
Those blankets are very familiar to the new prisoners of war, because they are exactly the standard blankets of the German army.
Thinking about what they had experienced all day today, and stroking their bloated bellies at night, the prisoners of war were very surprised when they saw the comfortable beds.
I just pity the guy who was so stubborn during the day. After being beaten violently, he was detained until dawn the next day.
…
On August 10, all the refugees completed their return, and at the same time, as many as 8,000 soldiers were withdrawn. The exhausted people needed time to rest in order to reserve strength for the more tedious work of base area construction.
After the meeting, the plan to build seven new farms was determined, and the next step was to complete and implement the plan.
When it comes to which of the seven farms can be built first, Yang Mingzhi can think of it after scratching his ears, it must be around the sulfur mine!
In itself, there is an ore distribution center in the woods near the sulfur mine. Due to the construction of the railway salt field, a small train station was built in the distribution center. Hundreds of workers settled there. If the camp is further expanded based on this, the collective farm will be completed.
Already?
But it's not that easy to accomplish.
Yang Mingzhi knew that there was always a smell of sulfide in the air at the mine. If a large number of people moved there to settle, ordinary people would suffer no more than the militiamen. They would complain, which would be detrimental to the development of the farm.
"We have to find a site to build a house near the mine, and we have to cultivate land around the settlement. Although it is already August, planting some quick vegetables is also of great positive significance."
Yang Mingzhi was very confident about Salinchkin and Lyudbarev, and they ordered the government officials of Catfish Village and all members of the Communist Youth League to go south with tools to measure in the afternoon.
Land survey work in the area surrounding the mine started on August 11, and a team of 20 people was responsible for the work in the area.
The team is small but the workload is huge. To find a suitable area for large-scale construction and settlement near the mine, site selection is crucial. The soil cannot be too muddy and there must be enough trees around. After the settlement is completed, nearby
The area can cultivate a large amount of farmland.
It's really a hassle to find a place in the south that meets the above criteria.
So in a sense, this team is more like a geological expedition team. Through the settlement site selection task, it also conducts geological and hydrological exploration in the southern swampland, because after the war is won, these data will be very important for post-war reconstruction.
Always.
The man who leads the team is a native of Catfish Village. His surname is Antonov, a very common surname. He is the team leader and guide, but his team members are a group of young faces.
In the early days of the war, a large number of Communist Youth League members and college students were ordered to infiltrate into occupied areas and help local guerrillas carry out operations.
The young Communist Youth League members who infiltrated into the swamps found an organization here and were all assigned non-combat positions. Many of them were placed in organizational organs as administrative staff of the guerrilla republic. Others, based on what they had learned,
Talents are assigned to important departments such as chemical laboratories, arsenals and even fertilizer plants.
There are three young people in the team who are in their early twenties. They came from Moscow and studied chemistry in college. They have been working in the chemical laboratory, preparing dangerous chemicals all day long, and even preparing hydrazine hydrate.
The chemistry laboratory has been in Catfish Village, and these two young men were seconded to the expedition team going south to use their knowledge of chemistry to judge the soil structure in the investigation area. In fact, to do this kind of work, college students majoring in agriculture and forestry are
The most appropriate thing is that since the Guerrilla Republic has no such talent at all, it has no choice but to send someone to make a cameo.
In addition to these two professionals, the veteran military reporter Belsky was once again ordered to take action.
The inspection of the south was particularly serious in the mining area. The inspection team had to find a suitable place to carry out large-scale construction within two or three days, and Belsky also had to write an article and post it on the newspapers of each collective farm.
The mining field inspection team arrived at Catfish Village one after another at five o'clock in the afternoon. Everyone had to stay here overnight and head south with their equipment after dawn the next day.
Until this time, they did not know that the future inspection work, this inspection team of only 20 people, would make great contributions to the future industrial development of the Gomel region!
The dawn of the morning came very early, and August 11th was another sunny day.
Perhaps new rains are on the way, and the weather will be fine for at least the foreseeable future.
"In August and September, once it rains, it will always last for many days. We must find the target early and build the house quickly, otherwise we will be in trouble." Captain Antonov was still asking him while eating breakfast.
The team members muttered, and these words really deepened the team's tension.
Nervousness is also a kind of motivation, especially for the energetic young people in the team.
The young members of the Communist Youth League in the team admire the warriors fighting on the front line. They always feel an inexplicable guilt about their stable work in the rear. Now that they have received a major task, they must complete it with excellence.
After eating, the whole team arrived at Catfish Village Railway Station.
Every morning, the steam locomotive would pull the empty carriages to the south to pull back the dirty ammonia produced overnight. After pulling back all the iron barrels filled with ammonia, the train drove directly to the mining area, and when it was full of ore, it drove directly to
Blacksmith Village.
It will take two hours to walk to the mining area, but it only takes half an hour to take the train. The whole team loaded up a small number of tools and got on the flatbed carriage, facing the morning fog and the black smoke emitted from the front of the carriage, whining
Rushing to the fertilizer factory.
After a while, Bielski, who was enduring the bumps, smelled the terrible stench in the air, and his whole body suddenly showed a painful expression.
"Comrade reporter, do you feel uncomfortable? We have arrived at the fertilizer plant, and we have to get off there!" Captain Antonov shouted loudly.
"Okay! Let's get to the mine quickly."
The team finally began to march on foot, carrying wooden measuring instruments, measuring tapes and long-handled shovels. Because there are wild boars, brown bears and other wild animals here, firearms for self-protection are also necessary.
As you walk along the dirt road with deep ruts made by carriages, you will soon encounter a carriage loaded with yellow ore.
Trains have indeed greatly improved the transportation of materials in sulfur mines. To quickly transport the excavated ore, traditional horse-drawn carriage transportation cannot be abandoned.
As soon as the carriage passed by, a new stench entered Belsky's nostrils.
"It seems that the sulfur mine is not a good place! Does the superior really want to build a farm in such a place? Who can tolerate such a stench?"
His complaint resonated with the whole team, and the captain said helplessly: "So we have been given a glorious mission! The new settlement must be near the mine, and we must try to avoid the stench of sulfur."
"So what do you suggest? We should get to work soon."
"Go around to the south of the mine, and we'll look there!"
The captain had his own considerations. As the southeast wind blows more often in summer, and the new farm is located south of the mine, the odor will generally not be blown into the settlement. There are more northerly winds in autumn and winter, but the odor of sulfur will not be blown in winter.
Too diffuse.
The team determined a general search direction. After contacting the mine defenders, they obtained a platoon of female soldiers as a mobile escort.
There are sulfur mines, hot springs, and a prisoner of war camp here. Two months ago, this place was still bombed by the Germans!
This was not the first time Bielski came here, and he could clearly see the traces of war. The troops once built open-air bathhouses, but they were destroyed in the bombing. Unexpectedly, the open-air bathhouses were built again. If it were in peacetime,
This is indeed a good place to recuperate.
Suddenly more than thirty female soldiers were added to the team. They were all young girls. Some were workers in the city before the war broke out, and some were just peasant women. The war has been going on for a year, and the weak women have been worn out.
They were trained as outstanding soldiers. Looking at the medals hanging on their chests, Bielski could tell at a glance that they were all veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles.
Being escorted by a group of women, the men in the team had mixed emotions. Some of them seemed very excited and even took the initiative to chat with them.
Captain Antonov was nervous because of the difficult task. The team continued southward after bypassing the mine. In front of them were only half-meter-high mugwort stalks and some shallow ponds.
Everyone was wearing leather boots, which were ripped from the corpses of the enemy. Excellent leather boots can be waterproof to a large extent, so they are perfect for outdoor operations.
"Comrades, please pay attention! And comrades female soldiers! We now have more manpower, so everyone must open their eyes wide and look for solid land in this vast no-man's land. If found, report immediately! Remember! Solid land
The land is our future farmland, search carefully for me!"
After Antonov issued the order, the team dispersed and formed a two-kilometer-wide search net, exploring the swamp wilderness lacking trees.
Like other areas, the woods to the south of the mine are also distributed in clusters. In the area near the river, the woods completely disappear, replaced by extremely soft wetland shoals where reeds and dense river channels are found.
The Pripet and Dnieper rivers will eventually converge and flow into the lake formed by the water stored in the downstream hydropower station.
In the area between the two rivers, part of the land here is very solid, and a large number of pine trees grow here.
New collective farms must rely on the protection of forests. Forests are easy to find, but wilderness suitable for land reclamation is difficult to find!
Bielski stood among the waistless mugwort stalks, and his leather boots were already stained with black mud. He thought that the Communist Youth League member who had been waiting in the chemical laboratory for a long time told him that everything he wrote on was covered with rotten mud, and then briefly described
It involves some long processes from sapropel to anthracite.
"It's incredible. In many years, the entire Pripet Swamp will turn into a huge coal mine?" Thinking about the conclusive words of the Communist Youth League member, Bielski believed that this was inevitable.
These black mud are formed after a large amount of mugwort stalks rot. The lower mud is compacted by gravity to become sapropel, and then gradually becomes peat through further compaction.
Gomel, Belarus, is rich in mineral resources, especially the astonishing reserves of peat. This type of fuel with low calorific value and high impurities is almost everywhere, and the Guerrilla Republic was of course the first to make use of it.
But soil rich in this kind of fuel is not a good choice for agricultural development. It lacks nitrogen and potassium. During the war, there was no time to improve the soil quality. People struggling during the war had to use this kind of bad soil to plant extremely tenacious crops.
potato.
Regarding the reclamation of new farmland, the Guerrilla Republic has only one minimum standard - not too much water.
Potatoes survive in an environment of low nitrogen and low potassium, which will naturally seriously affect the expansion of their rhizomes. Using ammonia and human and animal manure is a way to improve the soil quality, but the soil moisture is too high, so there is really no way to improve it. The only thing that can be done is to
Before clearing land, make sure it is dry enough that the cultivated potato tubers will not be drowned alive. (To be continued)