Australia 1671

Chapter 19: Logging

The next day.

At eight o’clock in the morning.

Five hundred able‑bodied men and women who had signed up for the logging and reclamation team yesterday were gathered on the vacant lot north of the Happy Home residential area.

They formed squads of ten, all wearing safety helmets on their heads and breathable long‑sleeve work uniforms.

In front of each squad lay tools—shovels, axes, steel saws, and chainsaws—while fifty squad leaders trained yesterday were explaining the details of logging work and the necessary safety precautions to their members.

“...When cutting trees, under no circumstances should you take off your helmet! These eucalyptus and pine trees are very tall, and if a branch falls directly on your head, it’s not just a little pain!

You are responsible for your own safety!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you...”

Meanwhile, not far north of these loggers, fifty members of the former shipyard’s armed division and sixty naval soldiers, fully armed, had formed a formation.

They were listening to instructions from Deputy Minister of the Army, Wu Guojie.

These soldiers now belonged to Army First Regiment, First Company.

Their mission today was to drive away any potential indigenous people nearby before the loggers entered the forest, and to protect the workers’ safety.

Finally, to the east of the crowd was a convoy of over a hundred cars and trucks—responsible for towing logs and roots, and hauling troublesome stones, significantly increasing the efficiency of logging and land leveling.

Li Yingchun, serving as Prime Minister, was also wearing a white safety helmet.

Near the army formation, he was discussing the indigenous issue with Jiang Yi, who was dressed in combat uniform.

“…Colonel Jiang, are you certain there are no indigenous people nearby? We absolutely can’t have them popping up while we’re cutting trees... Today is the first day of the logging and reclamation team’s work, and such incidents must not happen!”

Li Yingchun addressed Jiang Yi as “Colonel” because the latter was now the Army Minister of the Republic of Nanhua, holding the rank of colonel.

Since Li used his current title, Jiang Yi naturally responded with equal formality. He answered confidently, “Prime Minister! Rest assured!

The day before yesterday, the guard company scouted the forests to the west and north, even bringing back an indigenous captive for probing. They found that the tribe on the peninsula had abandoned their camp and fled west!

They were clearly spooked by our rifles—they left in a hurry, even abandoning some pottery jars and dried fish in their camp...

If you’re really worried, we can clear a safe corridor on the western side of the peninsula in advance and station troops there to protect the logging site on the east!”

“All right! That’s the plan!”

Li Yingchun thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

He took a printed map of Melbourne from his jacket pocket, spread it out, and circled the northern peninsula, saying, “Let’s clear this roughly ten‑kilometer‑square peninsula plain for now!

It’s surrounded by sea on three sides and only connected to the mainland on the west—relatively easy to defend...”

Jiang Yi gave a grunt, hesitated for a few seconds, then offered his suggestion: “Prime Minister! Given our current strength, we don’t need to worry too much about those Australian indigenous people still living in the Stone Age!

The armed division’s small arms depot holds 1,300 rifles and submachine guns with various ammunition, plus anti‑aircraft machine guns and portable infantry cannons—even anti‑ship, anti‑air missiles and rockets!

The navy, needless to say, could conquer indigenous tribes within a hundred‑kilometer radius in a short time!

Once the indigenous people are conquered, we could even have them do the hard labor of logging and land leveling!”

Li Yingchun showed little reaction to this clearly colonial‑minded suggestion, merely looked at his counterpart and shook his head:

“Old Chen mentioned this to me too, but Major Qiao Kecheng, who interrogated those three indigenous captives, submitted a report stating that Australian indigenous people are not suitable to be workers, nor to serve as soldiers...”

He stopped walking, looked toward the northwest forest, recalled the details, and said with a complex expression:

“...Major Qiao’s report said that racially, Australian indigenous people differ greatly from the white and yellow races of the Eurasian continent—perhaps even more than the difference between us and Native Americans!

They are likely descendants of Homo sapiens who migrated from Africa and Southeast Asia tens of thousands to ten thousand years ago, and later mixed with Southeast Asians and Austronesians, whereas Native Americans diverged from us around ten thousand years ago.

In terms of appearance, culture, even aesthetics, Australian indigenous people will find it very hard to integrate into our society. Forcing integration will cost us heavily in the future!

Therefore he suggested that we merely expel indigenous people from near our territory and, when conditions permit, relocate them to the South Seas region for settlement...”

Upon hearing this, four words popped into Jiang Yi’s mind—“White Australia Policy!”

After a long silence, he shook his head and said, “Doing that will definitely draw opposition, right?

Putting aside moral issues, if we don’t employ the indigenous people as laborers, our construction pace will definitely slow down.”

“So now we must prepare an ocean‑going fleet and recruit immigrants from Asia!”

Li Yingchun spoke frankly: “On this point, I actually agree with Major Qiao Kecheng—only immigrants of our own ethnicity and language, the Chinese immigrants, are citizens we most need.

Immigrants from Japan, Korea, and Vietnam are barely acceptable, but Australian indigenous people differ too much. There’s no need to forcibly integrate them.”

Jiang Yi nodded, though inwardly he shook his head: “Probably those white men in Australia once thought the same about Chinese being sold as coolies to Australia!

Now with the roles reversed, for our own interests and long‑term development, we can only learn from them.”

While they were speaking, the logging force had completed their preparations, and the Army First Company soldiers had already moved into the forest with their guns, on guard nearby.

Li Yingchun returned to the fifty logging squads, emphasized the significance of their work, then took a steel saw and was the first to enter the forest.

With the crunching sound of wood breaking, century‑old trees thousands of years old fell to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

Some of this timber would be used for building houses and ships; some would be dried to serve as fuel for winter heating... if no coal mines were found by then.

At noon, Chen Wenyun, who also headed the Shipbuilding Bureau, brought two hundred shipyard workers and cutting equipment to select suitable timber for shipbuilding on site.

Unlike building steel ships, which only require proper steel, constructing wooden warships must start from timber preparation—deciding which logs are for keel and which for ribs, and building kilns to dehydrate the wood.

Even after the ships were built, they would need months to relieve material stress...

In this era’s Europe, a good sailing warship often took years to complete!