CHAPTER 336: CHAPTER 215: NIX RESERVE TRIBE MEMBERS ADMINISTRATION OFFICE

The construction of this house is somewhat special. It consists of two wing-style houses connected together, forming an "L" shape, with a door on each side.

Emmerich entered through the door on the left. Inside the spacious room, there was only one subordinate from the Agricultural Department, who was focused on transcribing from wooden boards onto freshly made paper.

Emmerich approached and gently knocked on the wooden table, saying, "Antidoras, I’ve brought you more Reserve Tribe Members."

The middle-aged man named Antidoras, familiar with Emmerich, asked without raising his head, "How many people?"

"Seventy-three in total, but eleven are injured and are now in the hospital. Only sixty-two have arrived. They’ve all come from the Segestica side and have been fighting the Segestica people—"

Antidoras suddenly looked up at Emmerich: "There were reports about a group comprised of Skodisqi people frequently raiding within Segestica territory, causing the Segestica people a headache... Are they the ones?!"

"That’s them! Recently, the Segestica people intensified their encirclement of that group. The people I brought are the only survivors..." Emmerich said in a low voice.

"It seems their hatred towards the Pannonians runs deep?"

"I took them from the border of Westeni, brought them for registration, and informed them that there were Pannonians in the tribe. At first, they were resistant, but it’s much better now, not much different from the tribesmen who came from Brochi..."

"But we still need to be more cautious. This is our first time accepting Scodisqi slaves who escaped from Segestica after establishing the tribe, and the Segestica people are more demanding of you Skodisqi than of the Brochi people..." Antidoras cautiously said, handing a wooden board to Emmerich, "Write down their names first."

This was a necessary procedure, and Emmerich was familiar with it. He picked up an ink brush and skillfully wrote the tribesmen’s names, occasionally stepping out to inquire if he forgot any.

As Antidoras looked at the densely packed names on the wooden board, he asked, "Is there anyone who needs special attention?"

Emmerich hesitated for a moment and pointed to a name: "...Him, Gowes."

"Anyone else?"

"The rest are fine."

Antidoras took the board, circled Gowes’s name with ink, then opened a thick book, each page listing the residents of a dormitory. As he browsed, he assigned dormitory numbers above the names of these newcomers on the board.

After finishing, he led Emmerich through the door on the right. Inside the room was a fully armed centurion.

Actually, the Military Department sent a Centurion to guard the Reserve Tribe Members’ residence area, but since the Reserve Tribe Members needed to go out to work during the day, most soldiers also had to follow to maintain order.

"Sixty-two Reserve Tribe Members have just arrived. Here’s the list, and I’ve already assigned the rooms." Antidoras handed the board to the centurion.

The centurion glanced at the board and then handed it back to Antidoras, saying, "You handle the arrangements; I’ll back you up."

Thus, the sixty-two Scodisqi slaves who fled from Segestica were quickly dispersed and individually allocated to each room.

The room where Gowes stayed was Room Ten, not far from the room guarded by the Guard.

After the centurion led him into the room, he began looking around: The room wasn’t spacious, and the ceiling wasn’t too high, but it was relatively long, with beds on both sides extending from one end to the other. The bedding base seemed not to be lined with clay, sturdier, about a quarter-meter high. Wooden planks served as bed boards, planed smooth so as not to hurt hands, and topped with soft straw and hay, making it quite comfortable to lie on. The two rows of beds could accommodate dozens of people, with a passageway in between, and a wooden shelf against each wall filled with numbered earthenware pots and bowls, with a door on each side for convenient access.

Each entrance had a small hearth, and the ceiling had a chimney. The long walls on both sides were gray-white, likely made of the same material as the bedding base, also quite solid. However, at intervals, a vertical arc-shaped wood grain protruded, probably the wooden pillar supporting the roof. Each long wall had two small wooden windows for ventilation and lighting...

Although dozens of people slept in one room, it was far better than the living conditions when he was a slave in the Panlori Segestica Tribe, and it was more comfortable than when they were resisting the Segestica people, eating and living rough daily, although he didn’t know these specialized houses for the Reserve Tribe Members were built just five or six days prior.

The emergence of these longhouses was thanks to a carpenter named Seckblas, who was a slave at the Sarabia shipyard before joining the rebel army. Before becoming a carpenter, he was an artisan from a tribe on the Iberian Peninsula responsible for building houses for the tribesmen.

Despite his age, he was very clever. When the tribe was destroyed by the Romans, all surviving tribesmen became captives, he proactively told the Romans that he "was good at woodworking," so he wasn’t sent to farm but was sold to a shipyard.

At the shipyard, because of his woodworking skills, he wasn’t harshly treated. Out of interest, he would use his spare time to observe how the Italians built and repaired houses.

After joining the rebel army and settling here, he joined the team repairing the damaged houses within two forts, during which he thoroughly understood the building characteristics of the local ethnic housing.

The wooden bridge completion, the reward to Tetilipus the carpenter, and the upgrade of tribal status motivated all the craftsmen of the Nix Tribe, sparking their enthusiasm for work, and Seckblas was no exception.

At this time, they had just finished repairing all the houses. With the upcoming task of building docks and wood processing not needing too many hands, Maximus thought it wasn’t appropriate for the Reserve Tribe Members to keep living in simple wooden sheds or tents, so a proposal to build dormitories for them was passed in the Political Affairs Hall.

But figuring out what kind of houses could quickly solve the Reserve Tribe Members’ accommodation problem while ensuring their comfort and safety troubled the Chief Officers of various departments, so they sought input from the craftsmen, and Seckblas’s well-prepared proposal was ultimately approved.

His proposal was: First lay down the foundation, then drive dozens of wooden stakes into the ground according to the blueprint, create segmented roof wooden frames, assemble them after placing them on top, bringing the whole wooden house skeleton into shape. Next, nail wooden slats between the stakes, use freshly made simple cement mixed with water and river sand, adding a large amount of straw and hay, mixing thoroughly, and apply it between the slats until the gaps between all wooden pillars are filled. In the cement drying process, open doors, windows, and chimney spaces, completing a dormitory...

Building such a dormitory had ready timber, and more could be cut at any time; there was plenty of straw and hay. The bedding bases were formed with stone bricks and cement, but few bricks were used, only two walls on the edge and the center to prevent the wooden board from collapsing under too much weight, leaving most spaces hollow. Cement was relatively constrained, but lime kilns were under expansion to increase productivity... Therefore, raw materials weren’t an issue.

As for manpower, Seckblas and several carpenters with house-building experience supervised the entire project. They guided and examined tribesmen in compacting the foundation, marking house baselines with lime powder, and determining where the wooden pillars should penetrate the ground. Carpenters were responsible for processing wooden pillars, beams, and slats, with tribesmen lifting beams and applying prepared cement, and carpenters finishing the doors, windows, and chimneys...

This system allowed craftsmen to concentrate on their specialties, and the tribesmen contributed their large numbers, doing what they could. The clear division of labor saved time, so within just over a month, more than a hundred dormitories were successively completed, satisfying the Reserve Tribe Members after moving in.

Because the dormitory design by Seckblas solved a major problem for the tribe, and to encourage craftsmen to continue to actively unleash their creativity, by Maximus’s proposal, Seckblas was awarded by the tribe to become the second craftsman to be promoted to a First-class Tribesman.

Now, reborn in his career, Seckblas and the carpenters were building dormitories on the Westeni side.

In fact, Seckblas also mentioned in his proposal that "after the cement hardens, the entire wall and roof should be coated with lime water to make them white, making them more aesthetically pleasing...". But due to time constraints, this hasn’t been implemented yet.

Gowes, of course, didn’t know the origins of the dormitory; today, after the long journey, he was already quite tired. Seeing a large unfilled space with straw on the fringe of the left bed, he crawled over and lay on his back, gazing at the wooden plaque in his hand, pondering everything he had encountered in the Nix Tribe that day, including the daughter of the Hamsted leader, and for a moment, his thoughts became turbulent...

.....................

"Hey, wake up!... Wake up!..." Gowes was pushed awake, opening his drowsy eyes to see many faces floating before him. He immediately propped himself up.

"Hey, new brother, what’s your name?" A man taller and stronger than he was stood at the foot of the bed, asking kindly.

Gowes glanced around, finding the previously empty room now packed with people, not a familiar face in sight, but certainly, none were Pannonians. Also, he noticed as this man spoke, everyone else went quiet, indicating he probably had a significant status.