In winter, the days were short. By a little after 6:00 PM, gas lamps were already lit one by one across the construction site. The scene of "lighting lamps to fight at night," often found in historical romance novels, had become a reality here.

Everything required preparation. For instance, the simple process of digging earth was vastly different in efficiency when digging into frozen mud versus loose soil. The People's Party naturally didn't have ideas about steam tractors or steam tanks yet, but they did attempt to utilize the power of steam locomotive engines to plow the earth, thereby improving daytime work efficiency.

After research and experimentation, they tied many thick cables to the locomotive body, with large steel plows attached to the other ends of the ropes. Under the careful manipulation of the operators and the slow traction provided by the moving train, they could plow hundreds of deep furrows into the ground every night. With so many furrows, the efficiency of digging was naturally greatly improved.

Winter in Xuzhou was not warm at all. The reason for placing such importance on plowing at night was not only to improve digging efficiency but also to prevent the ground from becoming too hard. The areas of the construction site where earth wasn't being excavated were trampled back and forth by tens of thousands of people daily. Even if the ground was originally relatively soft, it would be stepped into a very dense state. Coupled with the cold weather, digging became much more troublesome. Once winter truly set in and the temperature dropped further, it would be considerably difficult. For example, to transport soil up from the huge pit being excavated, dozens of slopes had been specially left. For the first day or two, the soil on these slopes was still somewhat soft, but now the ground was so hard that striking it forcefully with a shovel would only result in a few small pits.

As a Liaison Staff Officer, Gu Lu was actually somewhat similar to a Director of the General Office. Whenever any issue was encountered in matters large or small, or if there were any latest changes, he was responsible for directing the Liaison Section to convey them in a timely manner. With the construction site operating around the clock, Gu Lu certainly had his hands full.

Chairman Chen Ke had come to inspect during the day, which Gu Lu didn't find unusual. For such a massive project, it would be strange if no one came to inspect it. These days, Gu Lu would lie down and sleep immediately after dinner, sleeping for four or five hours, and then wake up around 12:00 AM to continue working. If there were no special circumstances, he would work until 4:00 AM and then sleep for a while longer. He would get up at 6:30 AM for breakfast, and take another nap after lunch. Sleeping three times a day when work wasn't particularly busy always ensured he had enough energy.

Of course, this referred to times when no special circumstances occurred. On the night of Chairman Chen Ke's inspection, Gu Lu suddenly received a notification from a military cadre responsible for the next day's day shift, hoping to increase the number of plowing personnel at night and work for a while longer. They wanted Gu Lu to coordinate with the relevant departments. There weren't many relevant departments for night work; it was mainly the logistics department. They needed to provide late-night snacks for the troops, as well as corresponding labor protection equipment like gloves. It was fine during the day, but in the middle of the night in winter, working without gloves was truly freezing.

Based on Gu Lu's experience, the Logistics Department had a natural tendency to delay things when problems arose. Gu Lu had heard the explanation from Chai Qingguo: this wasn't because the Logistics Department was lazy. Distributing logistical supplies was a procedure-heavy task. If they only listened to the application requests from frontline departments, no amount of supplies would be enough. Therefore, the Logistics Department had to conduct some research based on their inventory. When encountering such problems, the best solution was to let the two parties meet in person. Relying solely on the Liaison Office to mediate was purely asking for trouble.

To solve this problem, a simple telephone network had been constructed on the site. The Liaison Section had a telephone group. Gu Lu found it slightly strange—why did this bunch of people insist on having him convey messages when they could have called the Logistics Department directly?

"Connect me to Regiment Commander Lu," Gu Lu said to the operator. Watching the operator accurately insert the wire plug into the jack on the dense switchboard, Gu Lu felt an uncontrollable sense of curiosity. Telephones were very novel equipment, even for the troops. let alone this kind of 120-line telephone exchange unit.

"Connected," the female operator said. Gu Lu didn't really want to come into the telephone group's area. Currently, employment policies for civilian personnel were skewed towards women; positions that could be filled by women were filled by them as much as possible. For example, in the communications department, the majority of those engaged in non-physical labor were women. Even for wire-pulling work in non-combat departments, women were, as Chairman Chen had said, "holding up half the sky." The base area had even established a festival for working women in 1910, designating March 8th of every year as "Working Women's Day." On this day, the base area would hang banners congratulating female workers and commend outstanding working women.

Being next to a group of women made Gu Lu feel uncomfortable all over. But he couldn't think too much about it right now. He picked up the phone, and the other side connected quickly. "Hello? Is Regiment Commander Lu there? This is Liaison Staff Officer Gu Lu," Gu Lu said.

There was a pause in the receiver, then the person on the other end said, "Regiment Commander Lu is not here right now."

Hearing the person's tone, Gu Lu felt it was a lie. If Regiment Commander Lu really wasn't there, he wouldn't have needed that pause. However, exposing the lie at this moment was meaningless. Gu Lu said, following what Chai Qingguo had taught him, "Then tell Regiment Commander Lu that there are some final issues to confirm regarding the equipment he applied for. If I can't contact him, I won't be able to prepare it for him. It's best to be quick; the personnel on duty at the Logistics Department don't have the authority to allocate supplies."

Hearing this news, the person answering the phone seemed frightened. "Staff Officer Gu, wait a moment. I'll go find Regiment Commander Lu."

Soon, a voice with an Anhui accent came through the receiver. "Hello, I am Lu Kaiwen." This Regiment Commander was named Lu Kaiwen. According to the plan, his regiment was scheduled for work tomorrow during the day.

"Regiment Commander Lu, why didn't you contact the comrades in the Logistics Department directly?" Gu Lu asked straightforwardly.

"Uh?" Lu Kaiwen obviously didn't understand Gu Lu's meaning. He paused for a moment before realizing that this meant Gu Lu likely hadn't contacted the Logistics Department yet. Lu Kaiwen tentatively asked, "Staff Officer Gu, what did the Logistics Department say?"

"We haven't received any notification regarding this arrangement. What do you think the Logistics Department would say?" Gu Lu asked, following Chai Qingguo's teachings.

"This..." Lu Kaiwen was somewhat at a loss for words. In this project, the work schedule had been set long ago, with arranged working hours for every unit each day. If Lu Kaiwen's work request was an arrangement from the Headquarters, then it should have been Chai Qingguo, or at least a cadre responsible for project progress, who notified Gu Lu. It would never be Lu Kaiwen's turn to volunteer.

Hearing Lu Kaiwen's reaction, Gu Lu felt even more strongly that something was wrong. Chai Qingguo had made it very clear at the engineering meeting: "In wartime, for the sake of engineering progress, we must complete the task even if we don't sleep for days and nights. But in normal times, we must obey commands."

Gu Lu asked, "Regiment Commander Lu, is your request for overtime this time a command from the Headquarters, or your own arrangement?"

"This... it's my own arrangement," Lu Kaiwen had to admit.

Gu Lu pressed on, "The Headquarters requires that the daily workload and the soldiers' rest be guaranteed every day. Why does your unit want to work overtime?"

"This is indeed for the sake of engineering progress," Lu Kaiwen replied stiffly.

"If it's for engineering progress, Regiment Commander Lu, get the Headquarters to give me an order. I will definitely go contact the Logistics Department. If it's your own decision, then I cannot contact them for you," Gu Lu replied. "If you really need to work overtime, hurry up and contact the Headquarters." After speaking, Gu Lu hung up the phone.

After putting down the phone, Gu Lu couldn't help but mutter, "Blindly messing around!"

Gu Lu had a rough judgment of Lu Kaiwen's thinking. Since arriving at the construction site personally, although Chai Qingguo had specifically explained the scope of authority and corresponding regulations to Gu Lu, Gu Lu had still made a few mistakes. The cause of all these mistakes was that Gu Lu had participated in matters he shouldn't have.

Initially, Gu Lu thought that as a Liaison Staff Officer, his job was just to pass messages. He soon discovered that this understanding was a huge mistake. A Liaison Staff Officer was not a messenger; this position was responsible for the smooth flow of communication between various departments. He actually couldn't solve any problems himself; what he had to do was ensure that when problems occurred, the respective persons in charge could receive the news at the fastest speed. Since more than one department was usually involved, he needed to make the responsible persons who could solve the problem meet quickly according to the situation.

But some people wanted to exploit this loophole. Matters they couldn't resolve, they would try to mislead through Gu Lu's "liaison." For example, this Regiment Commander Lu. If following regulations, let alone organizing overtime privately, he probably would have difficulty even leading the troops out of the camp. Even if they arrived at the construction site, the management of tools on the site was arranged. Lighting so many gas lamps at night wasn't just to illuminate the site; it also involved equipment maintenance and equipment safety management work.

Troops could carry shovels, but transporting soil from the pit to the loading point by the rails relied on handcarts. Handcarts were valuable military supplies. Without an order from the Headquarters, and not during working hours, Regiment Commander Lu couldn't even dream of taking over these handcarts.

If Gu Lu had been like he was when he made mistakes before, paying no attention to the scope of authority and just treating himself as a "microphone," then this would be a big joke. The Logistics Department would likely think Gu Lu was conveying the Headquarters' ideas. If the Logistics Department asked the Headquarters, Gu Lu, as the guy "falsely issuing imperial decrees," would definitely be held responsible.

If the Logistics Department didn't ask the Headquarters, that would be even worse. Lu Kaiwen would have disrupted the Headquarters' arrangements. With Chai Qingguo's personality, this Regiment Commander Lu Kaiwen would certainly not have a good outcome.

"This is truly blindly messing around!" Thinking of this, Gu Lu couldn't help but mutter again.

"Pfft!" The female operator beside Gu Lu couldn't help but laugh out loud. Gu Lu looked up in surprise, only to see the female operator with a face full of suppressed laughter.

"What's the matter?" Gu Lu asked curiously.